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Potato Pancakes

Potato pancakes are fried grated potatoes mixed with eggs and sour cream, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and cream 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 potatoes

  1. Let the grated potatoes stand for several minutes. Drain off the water and set it aside until the starch settles. Pour off the water and add the starch back to the potatoes.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs thoroughly and mix them with the cream and potatoes. Add salt to taste.

Fry

  1. Fry in plenty of coconut or lard until crisp and brown.

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. Potato + creamtop 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. Potato + eggtop 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the pancake and release starch that helps them crisp when fried.
Eggs
Bind the grated potatoes together so the pancakes hold their shape.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and a tangy richness to the batter.
Coconut or lard
Conducts heat around the pancakes, browning and crisping their surface.

The step that matters

Fry in plenty of fat until crisp and brown. Enough fat surrounds the pancakes so heat transfers evenly and the surface browns and crisps. Too little fat leaves them steaming and pale, and they can stick or turn greasy in uneven patches.

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.

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