Skip to main content
Main

Potato Pancakes

A batter of grated potatoes, eggs, sour cream, baking soda, and salt, pan‑fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,481 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Potato Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Grate the raw potatoes to make about 1 quart of batter.

  2. In a bowl, combine the grated potatoes, eggs, sour cream, baking soda, and salt. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the mixture in a hot skillet until golden brown on both sides.

  2. Serve warm.

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. Cream + potatotop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Eggs
Bind the grated potatoes together and add structure to the pancakes.
Raw potatoes
Form the body of the pancake, with starch that helps it hold together when cooked.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and a mild tang to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter's acidity to lighten the texture and aid browning.

The step that matters

Cook in a hot skillet until golden on both sides. If the skillet is not hot enough, the grated potatoes release moisture and steam instead of browning, leaving pancakes soggy and pale. A hot pan sets the outside quickly and builds the golden crust.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream. 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.

More potato pancakes recipes

German 6 See all 62 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes