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Potato Lángos

A fried dough made with potatoes, flour, yeast, and caraway seeds, served hot with garlic or jam.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,517 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Potato Lángos

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Cook potatoes until soft.

  2. Mash them finely and let them cool.

  3. Mix fresh yeast with warm water and set aside.

  4. In a deep dish, combine flour, mashed potatoes, salt, and a generous amount of caraway seeds.

  5. Make a well in the middle and add the yeast mixture slowly.

  6. Start kneading, adding lukewarm water and flour as needed until the dough is soft yet resilient.

  7. Knead until the dough does not stick to the knuckles, about 20–25 minutes.

  8. Generously flour the bottom of a deep dish.

  9. Place the dough on top.

  10. Sprinkle it with flour.

  11. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise overnight in a warm place.

Shape and fry

  1. Turn the dough onto a floured board.

  2. Knead it gently.

  3. Flatten it with a rolling pin to about ¼ inch thick.

  4. Let the dough rest.

  5. Cut the dough into squares.

  6. With the tip of a knife, make 2–3 small incisions in each, nicking the surface only and not cutting through the dough.

  7. Let the dough rest again.

  8. Heat the oil in a pan.

  9. Carefully place the squares in the oil.

  10. Fry until golden brown, then turn to the other side.

  11. Serve hot, rubbed with fresh garlic cloves, jam, or freshly-sprinkled salt.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

854Calories
18 gProtein
28 gFat
133 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Caraway Seednot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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 + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,517 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + carawaytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  4. Caraway + garlictop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Flour + garlictop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chewy resilience.
Fresh yeast
Produces gas during the overnight rise, making the dough light and airy.
Potatoes
Add moisture and starch that keep the dough soft and tender after frying.
Oil or lard
Transfers heat for frying and browns the surface, creating a crisp golden crust.

The step that matters

Frying the squares until golden brown. Oil must be hot enough to brown the surface quickly; if it is too cool, the dough absorbs excess oil and turns greasy and heavy instead of crisp.

Swap the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, caraway):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, caraway. 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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