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Potato Pancakes with Cheese

A savory batter of grated potatoes, milk, egg yolks, cheese, and breadcrumbs fried into golden pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Pancakes with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Grate the potatoes and moisten them with milk.

  2. Mix in the egg yolks, butter, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add the grated cheese and enough flour to create a smooth batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat more butter than usual in an omelet pan and fry the batter until golden on both sides.

  2. Dust with grated Swiss or Cheddar cheese, fold, and serve on a napkin or dish paper, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that forms the body of the pancakes.
Egg yolks
Bind the batter and add richness that helps the pancakes hold together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the grated potato, helping the batter hold its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, promoting golden browning and a rich flavor.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and melts slightly, adding richness to the pancakes.
Flour
Adds starch to thicken the batter into a smooth, cohesive mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the batter until golden on both sides. Grated potato releases water and starch, so the batter can steam or stick if the pan is not hot enough with enough fat. Good heat and plenty of butter give even browning and a crisp exterior while the interior cooks through.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, egg, butter, bread, pepper, cheese. 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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