Name: Potato Ribbons
Ingredients: large potatoes; hot fat for frying; coarse sea salt; cayenne pepper; white pepper

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 ↓

Potato Ribbons

Ingredients

Directions

Wash, dry, and peel the potatoes.
Pare the potatoes into long strips, ensuring they are not too thin.
Place the strips in a frying basket and drop them into hot fat.
Fry until they are a delicate brown.
Drain the fried ribbons and sprinkle with salt, cayenne, and white 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.

Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,478 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Potato + white peppertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together157 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).