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Fried Potatoes, Parisian Style

Fried potatoes cooked in lard and butter, seasoned with salt and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Potatoes, Parisian Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Using a spoon cutter, cut the potatoes into round pieces the size of a large marble.

  2. Keep the cut potatoes in cold water until ready to use.

Fry and finish

  1. Fry the potatoes in hot lard until three-quarters cooked, then drain on a napkin.

  2. Add the potatoes and butter to a flat saucepan and finish cooking them.

  3. Add salt and chopped parsley and toss well.

  4. Drain off the butter.

  5. Serve.

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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish, with a starchy interior that turns soft and fluffy when fried.
Hot lard
Conducts heat to fry the potatoes, browning and crisping their outer surface.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the finishing stage, coating the potatoes as they cook.

The step that matters

Fry the potatoes in hot lard until three-quarters cooked. Frying only part of the way lets the interior cook through later in the butter while the exterior stays crisp. Frying too long leaves the potatoes dry and overbrowned before finishing.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, 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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