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Potato Pancake

A fried dish of grated potatoes mixed with egg, salt, nutmeg, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Pancake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Grate the raw potatoes.

  2. Let them drain in a colander to remove excess juice.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the drained potatoes with the egg, salt, nutmeg, and onion.

Fry

  1. Heat a mixture of butter and lard in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Spoon the potato mixture into the skillet.

  3. Fry until golden brown on both sides, ensuring they are not greasy.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 base that binds and fries up crisp and tender.
Egg
Binds the grated potato together so the pancakes hold their shape.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it cooks with the potato.
Butter and lard
Fat for frying that promotes browning and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Draining the grated potatoes. Potatoes hold a lot of liquid, and excess water steams the pancakes instead of letting them brown. Draining well helps the mixture crisp and keeps the batter from falling apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, nutmeg, 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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