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Potatoes A-LA-maitre D'hotel

A French-style potato dish with white sauce, butter, flour, cream, lemon juice, parsley, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,855 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil and peel the potatoes, then let them cool slightly.

  2. Cut the potatoes into thick slices.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, melt the butter and add the flour; cook for a minute.

  2. Gradually add the water and cream, stirring until combined.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the potatoes, parsley, pepper, and salt; stir gently.

  2. Stew for a few minutes, then remove from heat.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice and serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Potato + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,855 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + white peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Potato + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,445 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body of the dish and absorb the buttery sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a silky texture.
Butter
Provides fat and flavour, enriching the sauce and coating the potatoes.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter sauce.

The step that matters

Gradually add the water and cream, stirring until combined. Adding liquid slowly while stirring lets flour starch disperse evenly, preventing lumps and giving a smooth sauce instead of a clumpy one.

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, sauce, parsley, lemon, butter, flour, cream):

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, sauce, parsley, lemon, butter, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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