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Potato Pie

A baked dish of sliced potatoes and onions layered with butter, eggs, and covered with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Soak the sliced potatoes and onions in cold water for 30 minutes.

Assemble

  1. In an earthen dish, layer the potatoes and onions, seasoning each layer with salt, pepper, and butter.

  2. Add a little water to the dish.

  3. Beat the eggs and pour them over the top of the layered vegetables.

  4. Cover the pie with puff pastry.

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 hours.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 pie and set its structure as they cook until tender.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory aroma that deepen during the long, gentle bake.
Eggs
Bind the layers together and set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the layers and helping the top brown.

The step that matters

Bake long and low until the potatoes are fully tender. Sliced potato needs enough time at a moderate oven heat for its starch to soften through the whole dish. Gentle heat also lets the beaten egg set evenly without curdling or drying out, so the pie cooks through rather than only on top.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, butter, 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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