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Potato Sandwiches

A sandwich made with roast beef, mashed potatoes, egg, and bread crumbs, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Potato Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Slice the cold roast beef into thin pieces.

  2. Fry the beef slices gently in hot fat for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Remove and drain the beef slices.

Coat and fry

  1. Spread a ¼ inch thick layer of mashed potatoes on both sides of the beef.

  2. Dip the beef in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot fat until lightly browned, about 5-6 minutes.

  4. Serve on a white napkin.

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. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  4. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Forms the main filling and provides the savory meat flavor of the sandwich.
Mashed potatoes
Adds a soft, moist layer that surrounds the beef and cushions it while frying.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the coating so they stick during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried in hot fat.

The step that matters

Frying the coated sandwiches. Fry in hot fat until just lightly browned. Too low a heat lets the coating soak up grease and turn soggy, while too high a heat browns the crumbs before the potato layer heats through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, bread. 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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