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Escalloped Potatoes

Layered potatoes baked with butter, onion, flour, milk, and seasonings.

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 ↓

Escalloped Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes as you would for frying.

  2. Butter an earthen dish.

Layer and season

  1. Add a layer of potatoes.

  2. Season the layer with coarse sea salt, black pepper, small pieces of butter, and chopped onion.

  3. Dredge a little flour over the layer.

  4. Repeat layering until the dish is full.

Bake

  1. Pour 1 cup of milk over the top just before baking.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 and become tender as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the layers.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a light sauce around the potatoes.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks into a creamy sauce.
Chopped onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it softens in the oven.

The step that matters

Pour the milk just before baking. Potato starch on the cut surfaces can release and the flour needs liquid to hydrate; adding milk early lets the potatoes sit soaking and can make the sauce uneven or the slices break down. Pouring it just before baking keeps the layers intact and the sauce evenly thickened as it heats.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, flour, 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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