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Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked dish of boiled potatoes mixed with cream sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Potatoes Au Gratin

Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Potatoes Au Gratin

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. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Mix the chopped potatoes with the cream sauce.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a shallow baking dish.

Bake

  1. Dust the top thickly with Parmesan cheese.

  2. Bake until browned.

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. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Potato + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together572 recipes

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

  3. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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, giving it body and a soft, tender texture.
Cream sauce
Binds the potatoes and adds moisture and richness so they do not dry out in the oven.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. The top should turn golden from the cheese and milk proteins browning, not just heat through. Pull it too early and the surface stays pale and the centre may remain under-heated; leaving it too long can dry the cream sauce and scorch the cheese.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sauce, parmesan cheese):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sauce, parmesan cheese. 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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