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Block Potatoes

A baked potato dish with creamy gravy and toasted cracker topping.

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

Block Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Cut the potatoes into 1-inch blocks.

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook until the gravy thickens like cream.

  3. Pour the gravy over the potatoes.

Bake and serve

  1. Top with grated crackers and bake at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  2. Garnish with parsley leaves 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 give it a tender, starchy body.
Milk
Provides the liquid that becomes the creamy gravy and keeps the potatoes moist.
Flour
Its starch thickens the milk into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the gravy.
Grated crackers
Toast on top in the oven, adding browning and a crisp finish.

The step that matters

Cook the gravy until it thickens. Flour only thickens fully once heated and its starch swells in the liquid. If the gravy is pulled off too early, it stays thin and can taste raw and floury, so it should be cooked until it coats a spoon like cream.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, butter, flour, 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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