Potato Cakes

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together124,287 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together5,355 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cold mashed potatoes

Form the main body of the cakes, holding their shape when pressed together.

Flour

Coats the outside so the cakes brown more evenly and form a crisp crust.

Butter

Conducts heat for frying and adds fat that browns the surface and adds flavour.

The step that matters

Swap the potato

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

1. Shallotfits better
2. Leekfits better
3. Arrowrootfits better
4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.