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German Fried Potatoes

A German dish of sliced boiled potatoes fried in salt pork fat with onions, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

German Fried Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onion

  1. Heat the salt pork fat in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onion and cook until delicately browned.

  3. Remove the onion and keep it warm.

Fry the potatoes

  1. Add the sliced potatoes to the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly with the fat.

  2. Shake the skillet occasionally until the potatoes are browned.

  3. Add the onion back to the skillet, mix well, and heat through.

  4. Transfer to a hot dish and serve immediately.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and brown on the surface in the hot fat.
Salt pork fat
Carries heat into the potatoes and onion and gives them a savory, browned flavor.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it browns in the fat.

The step that matters

Shake the skillet occasionally until the potatoes are browned. Potatoes that are left unmoved can stick and scorch before browning evenly, while frequent shaking exposes more surface to the hot fat so the browning is even.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, pepper. 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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