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Potato Casserole

A baked dish of mashed potatoes mixed with egg yolks, cream, and butter, topped with a beaten egg and filled with fricassee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Potato Casserole

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.

Make the potato base

  1. In a pot, combine mashed potatoes, egg yolks, cream, and butter. Stir over low heat until hot.

  2. Beat the mixture until very light, then season with salt and pepper.

  3. Form the mixture into a neat border on a baking sheet or platter.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the border with beaten egg and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  2. Fill the center with fricassee of chicken, rabbit, or veal, 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 casserole and give it a soft, tender body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the potato mixture smooth and soft.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and a silky texture in the potato mixture.
Beaten egg
Brushed on the border to promote even golden browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Beating the potato mixture until very light. Beating incorporates air and makes the mixture light and smooth, so the border piped or shaped holds its form and bakes up tender rather than dense or gluey.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, pepper, chicken. 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.

More potato casserole recipes

Sweet 24Baked 7Beef and Mashed 7Meat and Mashed 6Cheese 5Cheesy 4 See all 25 →

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