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Vegetable Hot-pot

A baked hot pot of sliced potatoes, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and nut butter, seasoned with MARMITE and water or stock.

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 ↓

Vegetable 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 and slice the potatoes and onions.

  2. Peel and stem the mushrooms, then slice or chop them coarsely.

Layer

  1. Butter a pie dish and layer the potatoes, followed by onions, repeating until the dish is full.

  2. Scatter the mushrooms and herbs between each layer, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Dissolve the MARMITE in the water or stock and pour it over the layers.

  4. Dot the remaining nut butter on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 2 hours and serve in the same dish.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 soften into a tender, starchy body as they cook.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften and brown slightly during baking.
Mushrooms
Contribute moisture and earthy flavour to the layers as they cook down.
Nut butter
Adds richness and fat that melts over the top and enriches the sauce.
Marmite
Dissolved in the liquid, it adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the whole dish.

The step that matters

Dissolving the MARMITE in the liquid. MARMITE is strongly salty and savoury, so it should dissolve fully in the water or stock before pouring. Undissolved pieces can make parts of the dish taste harsh or uneven, and seasoning should be adjusted with this in mind.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, mushroom, 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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