Skip to main content
Main

Potato Cheesecakes

Savory cakes made from mashed potatoes, cheese, eggs, and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Cheesecakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter and mix it with the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the cheese, flour, mustard, and one beaten egg. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Mix everything well and form the mixture into cakes.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat the second egg and dip the cakes into the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the cakes in oil or butter until brown.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Potato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body that holds the cakes together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and richness, and helps bind the mixture.
Fine wheat flour
Absorbs moisture and helps the cakes hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the cakes brown when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes until brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the crumb coating through the Maillard reaction while the centre heats. Too hot and the crumbs scorch before the cakes warm through; too cool and they absorb oil and turn greasy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cheese, butter, egg, bread, wheat, flour):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cheese, butter, egg, bread, wheat, flour. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes