Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Saratoga Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and slice the potatoes, then put them into cold water.
Wash the slices thoroughly and drain.
Spread the slices between clean cloths and pat dry.
Fry and serve
Fry a few slices at a time in boiling lard.
Sprinkle with salt as you remove them from the oil.
Serve hot or allow to cool for later use.
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.
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Starch and water in the slices become crisp golden crust and a fluffy interior when fried.
- Lard
- Hot fat transfers heat quickly, crisping the outside and adding richness and flavour.
The step that matters
Pat the slices dry before frying. Surface water turns to steam in hot fat, which makes the oil spatter and the potatoes soggy instead of crisp. Drying the slices first keeps the oil hot and the frying even.
“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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