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Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked dish of sliced boiled potatoes layered with béchamel sauce, bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Potatoes Au Gratin

Why it works: Parmesan cheese and bread work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 577 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potatoes Au Gratin

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.

Prepare

  1. Slice cold boiled potatoes.

  2. Warm them in ½ pint of Bechamel sauce.

  3. Place the potatoes in a gratin dish.

  4. Season with salt and white pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Dust thickly with bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Brown quickly in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together572 recipes

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

  3. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Potato + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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, giving body and a soft, tender texture under the topping.
Bechamel sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess, coating the potatoes so they do not dry out in the oven.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that helps protect the surface and adds texture contrast.

The step that matters

Brown quickly in a hot oven. The potatoes are already cooked and warm, so the goal is only to brown the topping. A hot oven browns the crumbs and cheese before the sauce overheats and loses its texture.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, sauce, parmesan cheese, 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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