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Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Applesauce

Potato pancakes are traditionally served to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, but they can be enjoyed year-round. For the best result, use starchy russet potatoes and be sure to shred them on the biggest holes of a box grater or with the medium or coarse shredding blade of a food processor to ensure large shreds that will cook up into crisp pancakes.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,481 recipes mention both. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6.

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Potato + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Potato + oniontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, cinnamon, sugar, lemon, potato, egg, cream):

  1. Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cinnamon, sugar, lemon, potato, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).