Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are layered with butter, paprika, parsley, white sauce, breadcrumbs, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 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. Cut the potatoes into dice.

  2. Butter a baking dish and add a layer of potatoes.

  3. Season with paprika, coarse sea salt, and chopped parsley.

Assemble

  1. Cover with a layer of white sauce.

  2. Repeat layers until the dish is almost filled, using sauce for the last layer.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and bits of butter.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes to 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.

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

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

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

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, becoming tender as they cook through in the oven.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess, coating the potato layers as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top crumbs and surface brown during baking.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes to brown.. Ten minutes is short for cooked potatoes to heat through in a deep dish, so the centre may stay cool. Check that the sauce bubbles and the top browns before serving.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, sauce, bread):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

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

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes