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Potato Pancakes with Cheese

A savory batter of grated potatoes, milk, egg yolks, butter, breadcrumbs, cheese, and flour, pan‑fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Potato Pancakes with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Grate the potatoes and moisten them with milk.

  2. Mix in the egg yolks, butter, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add the grated cheese and enough flour to make a smooth batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in an omelet pan.

  2. Fry small portions of the batter until golden.

  3. Sprinkle with more grated cheese.

  4. Fold the pancakes.

  5. Serve on a napkin or dish paper.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk and body of the pancake batter.
Egg yolks
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set.
Milk
Moistens the grated potato, adding moisture to the batter.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture from the grated potato, helping the batter hold together.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and melts to give a rich, browned crust.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, promoting golden browning and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Fry small portions until golden. Grated potato releases starch and water, so the batter can turn gummy or stick if the pan is not hot enough. Frying small portions in hot fat sets the outside quickly and gives an even golden crust.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, pepper, cheese, flour. 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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