Name: Creamed Potatoes
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled or baked potatoes, cut into ¼-inch cubes; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; ½ teaspoon finely chopped parsley; A few drops of onion juice (optional); 1½ cups thin White Sauce; Butter, for greasing; Buttered crumbs, for topping

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Creamed Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

2 cups cold boiled or baked potatoes, cut into ¼-inch cubes
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
½ teaspoon finely chopped parsley
A few drops of onion juice (optional)
1½ cups thin White Sauce
Butter, for greasing
Buttered crumbs, for topping

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

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Combine the potatoes with salt, pepper, parsley, and onion juice if using.
Reheat the potato mixture in the thin White Sauce until warmed through.

Bake and serve

Transfer the mixture to a buttered baking dish.
Top with buttered crumbs and bake until heated throughout and crumbs are brown.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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 sauce.
White sauce: Supplies moisture and creaminess, binding the potato cubes together as they heat.
Buttered crumbs: Brown in the oven, adding a crisp, golden top over the soft filling.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumbs are brown. The oven must heat the mixture through while browning the crumbs. Stopping early leaves the centre lukewarm and the topping pale, while overbaking can dry the sauce and make the crumbs bitter.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, parsley, sauce, butter):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, parsley, sauce, butter. 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.

Potato Croquettes255 recipes

Potato Rolls78 recipes

Potato Chips53 recipes

Sweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Creamed Potatoes