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 ↓
Potato Ribbons
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the potatoes into slices less than 1 inch thick and remove the skins.
Pare the potatoes into long, thin ribbons.
Soak the ribbons in cold water until ready to fry.
Fry and serve
Drain the potatoes and fry them in hot lard or dripping until crisp and browned.
Drain and dry the ribbons on a soft cloth.
Pile them on a hot dish and season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.
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
- Potatoes
- Thin ribbons become crisp on the outside while staying tender inside when fried.
- Lard or dripping
- Hot fat conducts heat quickly, driving off moisture and browning the potato surface.
The step that matters
Drain and dry the ribbons before frying. Surface water cools the hot fat and causes splattering and steaming instead of frying. Drying the ribbons lets the fat crisp and brown them evenly.
“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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