Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Potato Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Mold cooked potatoes into cakes.
Dip each cake in melted butter.
Brown and serve
Brown the cakes in a 400°F (200°C) oven on a buttered pan, or sauté in butter or bacon fat.
Garnish with parsley before serving.
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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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the body of the cakes, holding their shape once pressed and cooked.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and helps the outside brown during cooking.
- Bacon fat
- Optional cooking fat that adds savory flavor and browns the cakes when sautéed.
The step that matters
Browning the cakes. The cakes need enough heat and fat for their surfaces to brown. Too little heat or fat leaves them pale and soft, while a buttered pan or hot oven encourages the Maillard browning that gives flavor and color.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter):
- Parsleythe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Garlicfits less well
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter. 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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