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Spinach Au Gratin

A baked dish of cooked spinach layered with cheese sauce and topped with bread crumbs and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Spinach 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 the spinach

  1. Pick over the spinach and remove stems.

  2. Wash thoroughly.

  3. Cook in boiling salted water until tender.

  4. Drain.

  5. Immediately place in cold water.

  6. Drain thoroughly again.

  7. Chop the cooked spinach coarsely.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the bread crumbs, grated cheese, and melted butter.

  2. Season with salt and paprika.

  3. Prepare the cheese sauce.

  4. Grease a baking dish.

  5. Layer one-third of the spinach, half of the cheese sauce, and repeat.

  6. Top with the remaining third of the spinach.

  7. Cover with the prepared crumbs.

  8. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crumbs are browned.

  9. 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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Spinach + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its main vegetable body and flavor.
Cheese sauce
Binds the layers together and adds moisture and richness.
Grated cheese
Melts into the crumbs and helps them brown on top.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when baked.
Milk or butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the crumbs brown.

The step that matters

Drain the spinach thoroughly. Excess water left in cooked spinach thins the cheese sauce and makes the gratin soggy instead of set and creamy after baking.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cheese, sauce, bread):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cheese, sauce, bread. 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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