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Potatoes, Dauphine

A baked potato dish shaped into small cylinders and basted with egg yolk and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 potato

  1. Bake the potatoes until tender, then scoop out the centers while hot.

  2. Pass the potato through a sieve until smooth.

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

  4. Shape the ends to a point and add a design with a knife if desired.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Mix the egg yolk with a little milk and baste the potatoes.

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

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Butter + milktop 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 bulk of the dish and, once mashed smooth, give it a soft, tender body.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps the basted surface set and brown in the oven.
Milk
Thins the egg yolk so it spreads into a thin, even glaze on the potatoes.
Butter
Greases the dish so the shaped potatoes release cleanly and the base browns lightly.

The step that matters

Bake and serve. The potatoes must be baked only until the glaze sets and browns; overbaking dries the mashed potato and makes the surface tough. Serving promptly keeps the shape and texture.

Swap the potato

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

  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, butter, egg, milk. 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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