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Lyonaise Potatoes

Sautéed potatoes with onion and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Lyonaise Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Soften the onion

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and fry until soft.

Brown and serve

  1. Stir in the chopped cold boiled potatoes and cook until lightly browned, stirring constantly.

  2. Mix in the chopped parsley 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the potatoes brown in the pan.
Onion
Softens and turns sweet as it cooks, adding a savoury base flavour.
Cold boiled potatoes
Provide the bulk, and their surface starch browns in the hot fat.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma that lightens the richness of the fried potatoes.

The step that matters

Browning the potatoes while stirring constantly. Cold boiled potatoes are dry and starchy, so they need direct contact with hot butter to brown. Constant stirring spreads the fat and heat evenly, so the potatoes crisp without scorching or sticking to the pan.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, potato. 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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