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Potatoes “ Au Gratin.”

A baked dish of mashed potatoes layered with butter and grated Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potatoes “ Au Gratin.”

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the potatoes, then peel and mash them until smooth.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the mashed potatoes in a baking dish, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Sprinkle a little grated Parmesan cheese and small lumps of butter over the layer.

  3. Repeat the layers until all potatoes are used, finishing with cheese and butter on top.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden and bubbly.

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. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together572 recipes

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

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, giving a soft, creamy body under the golden top.
Grated parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Layering and browning the top. Potatoes need an even layer thickness so they cook through, and the cheese and butter on top must be spread evenly so the surface browns uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, butter. 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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