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Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked potato gratin with a creamy cheese sauce and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potatoes Au Gratin

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 ↓

Potatoes Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick 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. Slice the boiled potatoes and place them in a baking dish.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour and mix well.

  2. Gradually add the stock and milk, stirring continuously until it boils.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese, beaten egg yolks, salt, and cayenne.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture over the potatoes and sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes until browned.

  3. Serve in the baking dish with duck, roasted wild turkey, mutton, or game.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish, absorbing the sauce as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, helping it set into a custard-like texture.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the milk and stock into a smooth sauce.
Milk and stock
Make up the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Bring the sauce to a boil while stirring continuously. Flour needs to be heated fully in the liquid to thicken and lose its raw taste. Stirring prevents lumps. Egg yolks added after removing from heat avoid scrambling.

Swap the potato

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

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

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

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