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Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked potato dish topped with buttered cracker crumbs and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Potatoes Au Gratin

Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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. Wash, peel, and soak the potatoes, then cut them into 1-inch cubes.

  2. Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water until soft, then drain.

Assemble

  1. Add the white sauce to the potatoes and mix well.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a buttered baking dish.

  3. In a bowl, combine melted butter with cracker crumbs and mix with a fork.

  4. Spread the buttered crumbs over the potato mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the crumbs are brown.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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, becoming soft and tender when cooked.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creamy body that coats the potato cubes.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Melted butter
Fat that helps the cracker crumbs brown and turn golden.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumbs are brown. Baking heats the topping until the starches and proteins in the crumbs undergo browning reactions, giving color and flavor. Stopping too early leaves the topping pale and soft, while baking too long can scorch it.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, sauce, butter):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, sauce, 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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