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Delmonico Potatoes

A baked potato casserole with a butter‑flour‑milk sauce, seasoned with pepper and sea salt, topped with grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Delmonico Potatoes

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Delmonico Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Chop the potatoes finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in the flour until smooth.

  3. Slowly add the milk while stirring until boiling.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the sauce with the chopped potatoes.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until brown, about 10 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender in the creamy sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that coats the potatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour cook into the sauce base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Bring the sauce to a boil while stirring. Flour thickens milk only when it reaches a boil and is stirred steadily. Adding milk too fast or skipping stirring can leave lumps or a thin sauce that does not coat the potatoes well.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, pepper, cheese):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, pepper, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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