Why it works: Potato and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,855 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Season cold mashed potatoes with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Form the potatoes into little round cakes.
Place the cakes on a baking sheet.
Glaze the tops with the beaten egg.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.
Arrange on a platter, garnish with parsley, and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Potato + parsleytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,303 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Egg + parsleytop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together18,323 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
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Potato + eggtop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,716 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 mashed potatoes
- Form the body of the cakes, holding their shape while they bake.
- Beaten egg
- Glazes the tops, promoting browning and a glossy finish in the oven.
The step that matters
Glaze the tops with the beaten egg. Egg proteins set and brown in the oven, so an even, thin glaze gives uniform colour. Pooling or missing spots will bake unevenly.
Flavor stand-ins for the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, egg):
- Parsleythe original
- Dillabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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