Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Potato Shells
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the croquette mixture as in recipe No. 657, adding 2 egg yolks.
Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and shape it into a long roll.
Cut the roll into biscuit-sized slices.
Fry and shape
Coat each slice with a double breading and mark a lid on each, like tarts.
Fry in hot lard until lightly colored, being careful not to overcook.
Remove the lid with a small spoon and scoop out the inside to create potato shells.
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the potato mixture so the slices hold their shape.
The step that matters
Fry in hot lard until lightly colored. Frying only until lightly colored keeps the breading golden without overcooking the potato, which can dry out and toughen the shell's interior.
“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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