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Hashed Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked dish of sliced boiled potatoes with cream, butter, cheese, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Hashed 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.

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold boiled potatoes into small squares.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the potatoes with warmed cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of grated cheese and heat the mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a gratin dish and sprinkle it with grated cheese.

  2. Layer the potato mixture in the dish, then top with more grated cheese and bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with small pieces of butter and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until light brown.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (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, providing body and a soft, starchy interior.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the potatoes stay tender and creamy as they heat.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and helps the top brown during baking.
Grated cheese
Melts into the mixture and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft potatoes beneath.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Baking only until light brown keeps the cheese and butter from scorching while the top browns, so the crust is golden rather than burnt and the interior stays creamy.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, pepper, cheese, 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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