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Potatoes Fried

Thin slices of boiled potatoes fried in lard, seasoned with salt and pepper, finished with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Potatoes Fried

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slice the cold boiled potatoes into thin pieces.

  2. Heat a pan and add a little lard or dripping.

  3. Add the potato slices, salt, and pepper.

  4. Stir frequently, cutting them up until they are brown.

  5. Pour a little cream over the potatoes, stir once, and serve.

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 + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the main body of the dish, browning in the fat to a crisp, savoury texture.
Lard or dripping
Conducts heat to the potatoes and fries them, adding richness and browning.
Cream
Added at the end to add moisture and richness to the potatoes.

The step that matters

Stir frequently until brown. Frequent stirring and cutting keep the potato pieces in contact with the hot fat so they brown evenly. Letting them sit too long without moving can scorch some pieces before others colour.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, cream):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, cream. 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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