Skip to main content
Main

Potato Tortilla

A fried potato and egg dish cooked in a pan.

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

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Tortilla

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tortilla

  1. In a sauté pan, heat the butter or oil until hot.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes and fry until lightly browned.

  3. Beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Pour the eggs over the potatoes, shaking the pan to prevent sticking.

  5. When one side is browned, turn the tortilla using a plate and brown the other side.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the potatoes together and set into a firm, sliceable omelette-like body when cooked.
Potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft, starchy texture that fills the tortilla.
Butter or oil
Conducts heat to the potatoes and helps them brown while preventing sticking.

The step that matters

Turning the tortilla. Flipping too early, before the underside is set and browned, makes the egg break apart. Wait until the first side is golden and firm, then turn it carefully on a plate.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, butter, 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.

You might also like

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