Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Potato Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Combine pancake batter and cold mashed potatoes until thick.
Fry
Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Spoon the mixture into the skillet and fry until golden brown on both sides.
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 + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pancake batter
- Provides the binding and structure that holds the cakes together while frying.
- Mashed potatoes
- Add body, moisture and a soft, tender texture to the cakes.
- Butter
- Conducts heat in the skillet and adds fat that promotes golden browning.
The step that matters
Frying until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the centre cook through while the surface browns slowly. Too high a heat scorches the outside before the inside sets, and the cakes may fall apart if flipped too early before the crust has formed.
“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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