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Fried Potatoes

Sliced potatoes are boiled, peeled, sliced, fried in butter or beef dripping, then served with pepper and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Fried Potatoes

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender.

  2. Let the boiled potatoes cool.

  3. Peel the cooled potatoes.

  4. Slice the peeled potatoes into ¼‑inch thick slices.

Fry and season

  1. Fry the potato slices in butter or beef dripping until golden brown.

  2. Remove the fried potato slices with a slotted spoon.

  3. Drain excess grease from the fried potatoes.

  4. Serve the fried potatoes piled high on a dish.

  5. Chop the fried potatoes small.

  6. Season the chopped potatoes with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  7. Fry the seasoned potatoes lightly in butter, turning several times until browned.

  8. Serve the fried potatoes in a covered dish.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch that is boiled, then fried to a crisp golden surface around a soft interior.
Butter or beef dripping
Fat that conducts heat for frying and adds flavour and browning to the potato surface.

The step that matters

Let the boiled potatoes cool before peeling and slicing. Cooling firms the cooked potato so slices hold their shape rather than breaking or turning mushy when fried. Starch in cooled potatoes also gives a drier surface that browns more evenly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Carrotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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