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Irish Potatoes for Dinner or Luncheon

A baked potato casserole with butter, milk, parsley, celery, cheese, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Irish Potatoes for Dinner or Luncheon

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 the potatoes

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes into thin slices.

  2. Soak the slices in cold water for about 1 hour, changing the water 2-3 times.

  3. Boil the potatoes quickly until tender, then drain the water.

Make the mash

  1. Cream the potatoes in the same vessel using a silver fork.

  2. Add butter and salt, then mix in the milk until light and creamy.

  3. Fold in chopped parsley and celery.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a baking dish, top with grated cheese and cracker crumbs, and dot with butter.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  3. Garnish with parsley before serving 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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 casserole, giving a soft, starchy body once creamed.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the mash into a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavour, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Cheese
Melts into the top layer and browns during baking, adding savoury flavour.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the creamy potato beneath.

The step that matters

Boil the potatoes quickly until tender. Potatoes that are overcooked or waterlogged turn gluey when creamed and hold too much water, so the mash becomes loose. Drain thoroughly and cook only until tender.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, milk, parsley, cheese. 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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