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Potato Pot

A baked dish of beef or mutton with onions and potatoes, simmered in water or stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Pot

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In an earthen jar with a closely-fitting lid, layer the meat and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the sliced onions on top of the meat.

  4. Fill the jar with the peeled potatoes.

  5. Sprinkle salt and flour over the potatoes.

  6. Pour in the water or stock and cover the jar with the lid.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven until the potatoes are tender.

  2. Carefully lift the potatoes out with a spoon and arrange them around a serving dish.

  3. Place the meat in the center, pour the gravy over everything, and serve hot.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Beef or mutton
Provides the savory meat base that flavors the gravy as it cooks.
Potatoes
Soften during baking to become tender, forming the bulk of the dish.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding aroma and depth to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it bakes.

The step that matters

Covering the jar tightly before baking. A closely-fitting lid traps steam so the meat and potatoes cook gently in their own moisture. If the lid leaks, the liquid evaporates, the flour may not thicken the gravy properly, and the potatoes can dry out before they become tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, potato, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, potato, flour. 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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