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French Fried Potatoes

French fried potatoes are sliced potatoes fried in hot lard or pork drippings, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

French Fried Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes, then quarter them lengthwise.

  2. Soak the potato quarters in cold water for a few minutes, then wipe them dry.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the potatoes in hot lard using a frying basket until golden brown.

  2. Alternatively, fry in a skillet with a spoonful of hot pork drippings, covering until done, then uncover to crisp.

  3. Serve hot, seasoned with salt and pepper.

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 + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 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. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  4. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + porktop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,387 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy interior that turns fluffy when fried and the crisp exterior that forms on frying.
Hot lard
Conducts heat evenly and fries the potatoes, adding richness and browning the surface.

The step that matters

Wiping the potatoes dry before frying. Surface water turns to steam in hot fat, causing spattering and slowing browning. Drying the quarters helps them crisp rather than steam.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, pork. 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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