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Delmonico Potatoes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Delmonico Potatoes

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 ↓

Delmonico Potatoes

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.

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Layer the diced potatoes in a baking dish, covering each layer with grated cheese.

  3. In a bowl, mix melted butter with cracker crumbs, adding salt and red pepper.

  4. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, add onion, and stir in flour until combined.

  5. Gradually add milk, stirring until thickened, then season with salt and pepper.

  6. Pour the sauce over the potatoes and cheese, dust with paprika, and top with seasoned crumbs.

  7. Bake until 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, milk, sauce, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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