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Scolloped Potatoes

A baked layered potato dish with bread crumbs, butter, milk, and optional eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Scolloped Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Slice cold boiled potatoes quite thin.

  2. Butter a pudding dish and layer potatoes, then add a layer of bread or cracker crumbs.

Assemble

  1. Season each layer with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and butter.

  2. Continue layering until the dish is filled.

  3. Pour enough sweet milk over the layers to moisten well, adding beaten eggs if desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 40 to 60 minutes 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and set into tender layers as they absorb the milk.
Sweet milk
Provides moisture that softens the potatoes and forms the creamy sauce as it bakes.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Add a light, crisp texture to the layers and help absorb excess liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown and the flavor develop.
Eggs
Help the milk set into a custard-like binding when added to the layers.

The step that matters

Pour enough sweet milk over the layers to moisten well. The milk must soak through all the layers so the potatoes cook evenly and the sauce sets properly. Too little liquid leaves dry, uneven layers, while the baking time and oven heat then determine how tender and cohesive the dish becomes.

Swap the potato

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

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

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