Skip to main content
Main

Gnocchi Au Gratin

A baked dish of hominy gnocchi topped with cheese, sauce, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Gnocchi 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.

Make the gnocchi

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Add melted butter and salt to the milk.

  3. Sift in the hominy or corn meal slowly, stirring constantly until it forms a stiff paste.

  4. Mold the mixture into gnocchi using two teaspoons and poach them in simmering chicken stock or water.

  5. Drain the gnocchi and arrange them in a shallow baking dish in a layer.

Layer and bake

  1. Cover with white sauce, a thin layer of grated cheese, and a few grains of cayenne.

  2. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a thin layer of sauce and cheese on top.

  3. Butter the cracker crumbs and sprinkle them over the top.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for fifteen minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hominy or corn meal
Forms the stiff paste that sets into the gnocchi body.
Cheese
Melts into the layers and browns on top, adding richness and flavor.
Milk
Cooks with the meal to make a soft, moist paste.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the cracker topping brown.
White sauce
Moistens the layers so the dish stays creamy while baking.

The step that matters

Stirring the meal into the milk. Adding the meal slowly while stirring constantly prevents lumps, so the mixture becomes a smooth, stiff paste that can be shaped and hold its form when poached.

“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.

You might also like

Corn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCream of Corn SoupCream of Corn Soup50 recipes