Name: Pomme De Terre a LA Maitre D'hotel
Ingredients: potatoes; butter; coarse sea salt; fresh parsley, finely chopped; bechamel sauce

Why it works: Potato and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,855 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Boil the potatoes until tender, then peel them and cut into very thin slices.
In a stewpan, melt some butter and add the potato slices, coarse sea salt, and chopped parsley.
Toss the potatoes gently over medium heat without breaking them.
Add 2 tablespoons of bechamel sauce and mix well.
Serve hot.

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.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Potato + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + buttertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together6,445 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together28,543 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + saucetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,317 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Parsley + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together6,693 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,317 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, sauce):

Parsleythe original
Capersabout as good a flavor fit
Garlicabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).