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Baking

Hot Pot

A baked casserole of potatoes, onions, veal, bacon, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Hot Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a strong baking dish.

  2. Boil the potatoes until half done.

  3. Slice the potatoes thickly.

  4. Parboil the onions.

  5. Slice the onions thinly.

  6. Wash the veal and dry it.

  7. Cut the veal into pieces.

  8. Dice the bacon.

  9. Mix the salt, parsley, pepper, and thyme on a plate.

Assemble

  1. Sprinkle the mixture over the meat.

  2. Line the dish with half the potatoes.

  3. Add the meat and onions.

  4. Top with the remaining potatoes.

  5. Pour in the stock.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with an old plate.

  2. Bake gently for 1.5 hours.

  3. Remove the plate.

  4. Add bits of dripping.

  5. Return to the oven to brown.

  6. 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 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 layers and soften into a starchy, tender body.
Veal
Supplies the meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle baking in liquid.
Onions
Add sweetness and savour as they soften between the meat and potato layers.
Stock or meat liquor
Provides moisture that steams the dish and builds a savoury gravy.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and richness that carries flavour through the casserole.

The step that matters

Bake gently under the plate. Covering the dish and baking at a low, gentle heat lets the tough veal become tender in the stock without drying out. Removing the plate afterwards allows the top to brown.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, veal, parsley, pepper, thyme, meat):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, veal, parsley, pepper, thyme, meat. 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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