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Hot-pot

A layered potato and tomato casserole baked with butter, onions, thyme, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Hot-pot

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.

Prepare

  1. Peel, wash, and slice the potatoes thinly.

  2. Peel and slice the onions thinly.

Assemble

  1. Arrange the vegetables and tomatoes in layers, dusting with pepper and salt between layers.

  2. Finish with a layer of potatoes on top.

  3. Cut the butter into small pieces and place them on top of the potatoes.

Bake

  1. Fill the dish with hot water and bake for 2 hours or more at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Add more hot water if necessary during baking to compensate for evaporation.

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. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 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 layers and become tender and starchy as they bake.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften between the potato layers.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that blends into the juices around the layers.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that enriches the juices and helps browning on top.

The step that matters

Adding more hot water during baking. Water evaporates over a long bake, and without topping up the layers can dry out or scorch. Keeping liquid in the dish lets the potatoes cook through gently.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, tomato, thyme, butter, pepper. 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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