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 ↓
Brown Hashed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the cold boiled potatoes into quarter-inch dice.
Heat the drippings in a frying pan until smoking hot.
Add the hashed potatoes to the pan.
Cook and serve
Season with salt and pepper, and stir over high heat.
Cook until the potatoes are nicely browned, then serve immediately.
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.
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled potatoes
- Form the bulk of the dish; their starch crisps and browns in hot fat.
- Drippings
- Fat that conducts high heat, frying the potato dice and promoting browning.
The step that matters
Heat the drippings until smoking hot. Hot fat sears the potato surfaces quickly, creating a crust and browning instead of steaming the potatoes into a soft, greasy mass.
“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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