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Potatoes a LA Creme

Potatoes à la Crème is boiled potatoes tossed in thick béchamel sauce, optionally garnished with minced parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,855 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potatoes a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the potatoes by peeling and boiling them until tender.

  2. Toss the potatoes gently in 1 cup of thick white sauce or béchamel.

  3. Add minced parsley if desired and mix well.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Potato + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,855 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Potato + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that absorbs the sauce and becomes soft and tender when boiled.
Thick white sauce or béchamel
Adds creaminess and moisture, coating the potatoes with a rich, smooth texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, sauce):

  1. Garlicabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Capersabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Dillabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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