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Potatoes, Dauphine

A baked potato dish with a flour and egg yolk coating, shaped into small pieces and finished in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Potatoes, Dauphine

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Bake the potatoes until tender.

  2. Scoop out the centers while hot.

  3. Pass the potato flesh through a sieve into a bowl.

  4. On a floured surface, roll the mixture into pieces 2 inches long and 1 inch thick.

  5. Shape the ends to a point.

  6. Create a design on each piece with a knife.

Glaze and bake

  1. Place the shaped potatoes in a buttered baking dish.

  2. Mix the egg yolk with the milk.

  3. Brush the mixture over the potatoes.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 5 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body, becoming fluffy when baked and sieved smooth.
All-purpose flour
Lightly coats the shaped pieces so the mixture holds its form and resists sticking.
Egg yolk
Mixed with milk to make a glaze that enriches color and promotes browning in the oven.
Milk
Thins the egg yolk into a brushable glaze that helps the surface brown evenly.

The step that matters

Brush the mixture over the potatoes. The egg yolk and milk glaze browns through the Maillard reaction and gives a glossy finish. Spread it thinly and evenly, because pooled glaze can burn or leave pale patches.

Swap the potato

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

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

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