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Breakfast-dish of Potatoes

A creamy potato dish made with butter, milk, flour, egg yolk, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Breakfast-dish of Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cold boiled potatoes.

  2. Beat the yolk of the egg.

  3. Smooth the flour in a little cold water.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and water mixture to the melted butter and stir well.

  3. Gradually add the milk while stirring continuously to prevent scorching.

  4. Add chopped parsley, pepper, and salt.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Stir in the beaten yolk of the egg until the mixture thickens to a rich cream.

  7. Add the sliced potatoes and heat through.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a heated covered dish.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  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

Boiled potatoes
Form the body of the dish, soaking up the cream sauce as they heat through.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries the flavour of the dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into a smooth cream sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by binding with the melted butter and liquid.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce to a rich, creamy texture when stirred in gently.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten yolk of the egg. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but if the sauce is too hot or boils after it is added, the yolk can curdle or scramble. Keep the heat low and stir steadily while it thickens.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, parsley, flour, egg, pepper. 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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