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Potato Cakes with Ham

A fried potato cake mixed with diced ham, flour, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Cakes with Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix mashed potatoes, diced ham, flour, egg, salt, and pepper until well combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into small cakes.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Fry the cakes until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Drain on paper towels before serving.

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

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

  2. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the cakes and give them a soft, tender interior.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Flour
Absorbs moisture and helps the cakes hold together.
Diced ham
Adds savory flavor and salty richness throughout each cake.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes until golden brown on both sides. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs steady medium heat and a dry surface. Too little heat leaves the cakes pale and greasy, while too much browns the outside before the interior is heated through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, flour, egg, pepper. 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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