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Potato Pie

A baked pie of sliced potatoes and celery with butter, sago, and seasoning, topped with 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 good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Slice the potatoes and celery.

  2. Fry the onion in half the butter until soft.

Assemble the pie

  1. In a pie dish, layer the sliced potatoes and celery, then sprinkle in the sago and seasoning.

  2. Pour in enough water or milk to fill the dish.

  3. Cover with pastry made with butter or oil.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1 hour.

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 + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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 turn soft and tender as they bake.
Sago
Starch that thickens the cooking liquid into a light, set body around the potatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the onion and pastry.
Onion
Softened in butter, it adds sweetness and savoury depth to the filling.
Water or milk
Provides the moisture that cooks the potatoes and hydrates the sago.

The step that matters

Adding enough liquid to fill the dish. The potatoes and sago cook in this liquid. Too little and the potatoes may stay dry and the sago may not hydrate and thicken evenly. Starch thickens when heated in liquid, so the liquid level matters for the final texture.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, butter, milk. 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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