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Scalloped Potatoes

Layered mashed potatoes with yolks, butter, milk, and bread crumbs baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

  1. Beat butter, milk, salt, and pepper into the hot mashed potatoes.

  2. Layer some potato mixture in a buttered baking dish.

  3. Add a layer of thinly sliced yolks, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  4. Repeat layers until the dish is full, finishing with a layer of potatoes.

  5. Top with a thick layer of bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) until heated through, then uncover and brown quickly.

  2. Serve in the baking dish.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and set into a soft, creamy body when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the potatoes a smooth texture and helping browning.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mashed potatoes stay soft and spreadable in layers.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add rich, crumbly flavor and a dense texture between the potato layers.
Dry bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden top layer when browned at the end of baking.

The step that matters

Uncover and brown quickly. Baking covered heats the dish through without drying it. Uncovering at the end lets surface moisture evaporate, so the crumbs toast rather than steam. Watch closely, since the top can scorch once exposed.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, bread, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, bread, pepper. 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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