Why it works: Sweet potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,491 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Fried Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Parboil the sweet potatoes, then skin them.
Cut the potatoes lengthwise into slices about ¼ inch thick.
Fry the slices in butter or sweet dripping until golden brown.
Alternatively, chop cold boiled potatoes with an equal quantity of cold Irish potatoes, add to a frying pan with a good lump of butter, and stir until hot and slightly brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Sweet potato + buttertop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,491 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
Sweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Potato Rolls78 recipes
Roasted Sweet Potatoes62 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.