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Potato Pancakes

A batter of grated potatoes, milk, eggs, flour, and salt fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Potato Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Grate the potatoes and strain through cheesecloth.

  2. Measure the potato water and use half that amount of milk.

  3. In a bowl, mix the grated potatoes, milk, salt, beaten egg yolks, and enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a pan and fry the batter until browned on both sides.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Raw potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the pancakes their body and crisp-edged texture.
Flour
Binds the grated potato into a stiff batter that holds its shape in the pan.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter together.
Egg whites
Whipped air folded in gives the batter lightness.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter.
Lard
Conducts heat in the pan and promotes browning and a crisp surface.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air bubbles that lighten the batter. Stirring hard or too long collapses those bubbles, leaving denser pancakes.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour. 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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