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Scalloped Potatoes

A baked potato dish with butter, milk, flour, onions, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Scalloped Potatoes

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. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a deep dish.

Layer and make the sauce

  1. Layer half of the potatoes in the dish, sprinkling with salt, pepper, butter, onion, and parsley.

  2. Add the remaining potatoes and repeat the seasoning.

  3. Bring the milk to a boil.

  4. Stir the flour into a little cold milk until smooth, then add to the boiling milk.

  5. Pour the milk mixture over the potatoes.

Bake

  1. Bake until the potatoes are tender.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 and become tender and soft as they bake.
Milk
Forms the creamy sauce that moistens the potatoes as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that coats the potatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps keep the top and dish from sticking.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the baked dish.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into cold milk before adding it to the boiling milk. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps, because its starch granules hydrate unevenly. Mixing it into cold milk first gives a smooth dispersion that thickens evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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