Why it works: Potato and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Potato Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine cold mashed potatoes and beaten eggs in a bowl.
Season the mixture with coarse sea salt if necessary.
Flour your hands and shape the mixture into oblong cakes.
Fry
Heat beef drippings and butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Fry the cakes until browned on one side.
Carefully turn them to brown the other side.
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.
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Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Cold mashed potatoes
- Provide the bulk and starch that hold the cakes together.
- Eggs
- Bind the potatoes so the cakes keep their shape while frying.
- Beef drippings
- Add fat for frying and help the cakes brown richly.
- Butter
- Adds flavor and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Carefully turn them to brown the other side.. The cakes are soft and held together mainly by egg, so they can break if turned too early or roughly. Let a deep golden crust form first, so the cake releases easily from the pan.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, beef, butter):
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, beef, 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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