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Scalloped Potatoes

Layered potato dish baked with butter, onion, parsley, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil salted water in a pot.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes and boil for 3 minutes.

  3. Drain the potatoes and rinse them in cold water.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the potatoes in a well-buttered baking dish.

  2. Sprinkle salt, bits of butter, onion shavings, and parsley between layers.

  3. Continue layering until the dish is loosely filled.

  4. Pour milk into the dish until it reaches the top.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden and bubbly.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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 soften into a tender, sliceable body as they bake.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the potatoes and forms the creamy sauce around them.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown and turn golden in the oven.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and flavor that mellows as it bakes between the potato layers.

The step that matters

Pour milk until it reaches the top. Milk must come up to the top layer so the potatoes cook evenly in the liquid; exposed potato can dry out and stay firm while the rest overcooks.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, onion, milk. 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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