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Saute Potatoes

Sautéed potatoes are thinly sliced, seasoned with salt and pepper, tossed in butter, and baked in a paper bag.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Saute Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. If the potatoes are not peeled, peel them.

  2. Slice them thinly.

  3. Season the sliced potatoes with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Pour a liberal quantity of melted butter over the potatoes.

Bake

  1. Place the potatoes in a well-buttered paper bag and fasten the end.

  2. Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 18 to 20 minutes, turning the bag several times.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold potatoes
Form the main body of the dish, cooking into tender, soft slices.
Melted butter
Adds moisture and richness and helps the potato slices brown as they cook.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the potatoes and draws out surface moisture for better browning.

The step that matters

Turning the bag several times. Turning redistributes the butter and steam so the slices cook evenly and brown on all sides rather than staying pale or soggy on one side.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Carrotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter. 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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