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Potato Griddle-cakes

A savory dish of grated potatoes mixed with flour, eggs, and milk, fried into golden pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel, wash, and grate the potatoes into a bowl of cold water to keep them white.

  2. Strain off the water and pour the boiling milk over the grated potatoes.

  3. Stir in the eggs, salt, and flour mixed with baking powder.

  4. If desired, add a little finely chopped onion for flavor.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat lard or butter in a skillet.

  2. Pour in the potato mixture to form pancakes.

  3. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

  4. Serve with stewed or preserved fruit, especially huckleberries.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the batter, giving the pancakes their starchy body and texture.
Eggs
Bind the grated potato together so the pancakes hold their shape in the pan.
Flour
Adds starch that helps thicken the batter and firm up the pancakes as they cook.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, lightening the pancakes and helping them rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the grated potato in the batter.

The step that matters

Strain the grated potatoes well before adding the milk. Excess water dilutes the batter and keeps the pancakes from setting firmly, so they may fall apart or steam instead of browning. Draining removes that water before the boiling milk and other ingredients are added.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, egg, milk, butter):

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

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