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Potatoes a LA Lyonnaise

A sautéed potato dish with onions, parsley, and butter, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Potatoes a LA Lyonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the potatoes and cut them into dice.

  2. Chop the onion and mince the parsley.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the butter or dripping in a frying pan.

  2. Add the potatoes, onion, and parsley to the pan.

  3. Stir and toss until everything is hot, but do not let it brown.

  4. Shake off excess fat in a colander and serve in a deep dish.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 dish and become tender with a crisp-edged exterior when tossed in fat.
Butter or dripping
Conducts heat through the pan and adds richness and flavour to the potatoes.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the fat.

The step that matters

Stir and toss until hot without browning. The potatoes should be heated through gently. Over-high heat or long cooking can scorch the fat and onion, giving a bitter taste and an unwanted brown colour, so keep the pan moving and the heat moderate.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, 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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