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Delicatessen Potatoes

A baked potato dish with a creamy sauce and toasted bread crumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Delicatessen Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Crumble the warm baked potatoes after removing them from their skins.

Make the cream sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and whisk in 4 tablespoons of flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add milk to the roux until a thick cream sauce forms. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer half of the crumbled potatoes, followed by half of the cream sauce. Repeat with the remaining potatoes and sauce.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the top is browned.

Top and serve

  1. In a separate saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of melted butter and mix in the toasted bread crumbs.

  2. Just before serving, sprinkle the buttered bread crumbs over the scalloped potatoes.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  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 + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Baked potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish, providing starchy body that soaks up the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, stable cream sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, and helps the flour form a roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
Toasted bread crumbs
Add a crisp, golden topping when coated in butter and baked.

The step that matters

Adding milk to the roux. Adding milk gradually while whisking keeps the flour smooth and lump-free, so the sauce thickens evenly instead of clumping.

Swap the potato

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

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

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