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Potato Pancakes

A fried potato pancake made with grated potatoes, egg, salt, nutmeg, onion, and fried in butter and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Potato Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Grate the raw potatoes and let them drain in a colander to remove excess juice.

  2. Combine the drained potatoes with the egg, salt, nutmeg, and onion in a bowl.

Fry

  1. Heat a mixture of butter and lard in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Spoon the potato mixture into the skillet and fry until golden brown on both sides, ensuring they are not greasy.

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. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that forms the body of the pancakes.
Egg
Binds the grated potato so the pancakes hold together while frying.
Onion
Adds savoury flavour and moisture to the potato mixture.
Butter and lard
Fat for frying that conducts heat and encourages browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Draining the grated potatoes. Grated potato releases water that turns to steam and softens the batter, so excess juice must be removed. Too much moisture stops the pancakes from crisping and makes them fall apart in the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, nutmeg, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, nutmeg, butter. 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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