Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Fried Potatoes and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the bacon
Cut the bacon into strips of even thickness.
Fry the bacon in a pan until cooked through but not burnt.
Fry the potatoes
Chop the cold boiled potatoes and season with pepper.
Add the potatoes to the frying pan and stir continuously until steam rises from them.
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.
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bacon
- Renders fat for frying and adds savoury flavour and browning to the dish.
- Cold boiled potatoes
- Form the starchy base that crisps and browns in the rendered fat.
The step that matters
Stirring the potatoes until steam rises. Surface moisture on the potatoes must evaporate before they can brown. Stirring keeps the pieces moving so they fry rather than stick, steam, or scorch in the pan.
“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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