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Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked dish of sliced potatoes layered with a butter‑flour‑milk sauce, egg yolks, cheese, salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Potatoes Au Gratin

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Potatoes Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and milk, stirring until boiling.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks, cheese, salt, and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer some of the mixture in a baking dish, followed by a layer of potatoes.

  2. Repeat the layers until the dish is filled.

  3. Top with fine bread crumbs and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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. Butter + breadtop 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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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 become tender in the baked custard layers.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor through the base mixture.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the layers together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, setting into a creamy binder.
Egg yolks
Enrich and set the sauce, giving it a custard-like body when baked.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce until boiling. Flour must be cooked in hot liquid to thicken fully and lose its raw taste. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the pan bottom.

Swap the potato

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

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

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