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Potato Griddle-cakes

A fried potato batter made with flour, baking powder, eggs, and milk, served with fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel and wash the potatoes.

  2. Grate the potatoes into a bowl of cold water to keep them white, then strain off the water.

  3. Pour the boiling milk over the grated potatoes.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the eggs.

  2. Stir in the salt.

  3. Stir in the flour mixed with baking powder.

  4. Add a little finely chopped onion for flavor.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard or butter in a skillet.

  2. Pour in the batter and fry like pancakes.

  3. Serve with stewed or preserved fruit, especially huckleberries.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the batter, giving the pancakes their starchy body and crisp-edged structure when fried.
Flour
Adds body to the batter so the grated potato holds together rather than falling apart in the pan.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pancakes rise and turn lighter in texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter together and add structure and richness as the pancakes set.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter and helps the potatoes cook through.

The step that matters

Strain off the water after grating. Grated potato releases starch and moisture. Draining the cold water removes excess liquid so the batter isn't too thin, letting the pancakes hold together and brown in the pan.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, egg, milk, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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