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Potatoes Lyonnaise

Sautéed onions and boiled potatoes cooked in butter, finished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 Lyonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a skillet, fry the onion in butter until lightly browned.

  2. Add the cold boiled potato slices and toss gently to mix with the onion.

  3. Cook until the potatoes are nicely colored.

  4. Drain the potatoes, transfer to a serving dish, and sprinkle with minced parsley.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. Butter + potatotop 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

Onion
Softens and browns in butter, adding sweetness and savory depth to the potatoes.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the onion and potatoes.
Potatoes
Provide the bulk of the dish; their starch browns on the surface while the interior stays tender.

The step that matters

Cook until the potatoes are nicely colored. Browning depends on surface moisture being driven off and the pan being hot enough. Crowding or stirring too often steams the potatoes instead, leaving them pale and soft rather than golden.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, potato. 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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