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Potato Pan Cakes

A batter of mashed potatoes, milk, egg, and baking powder is cooked on a griddle to make potato pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Potato Pan Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine cold mashed potatoes, sweet milk, egg, and baking powder in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add flour until a batter forms.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a griddle and pour batter to form pancakes.

  2. Cook until golden brown on both sides and serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the batter so the pancakes hold together while cooking.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter, giving the pancakes a lighter texture.
Mashed potatoes
Adds body and moisture, giving the pancakes a tender, soft interior.
Flour
Adds structure so the batter thickens and holds its shape on the griddle.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the batter to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Cook until golden brown on both sides. Browning forms through the Maillard reaction, which needs steady heat on a hot griddle. Pulling the pancakes too early leaves them pale and doughy inside, while over-cooking dries them out.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour. 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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