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Potato Cutlets

A fried potato patty coated in cheese, seasoned with butter, parsley, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mash the cold boiled potatoes in a basin until smooth.

  2. Add warmed butter, salt, pepper, parsley, onion, and the beaten egg; mix thoroughly.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool completely, then shape into cutlets.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush each cutlet with beaten egg and coat thickly with grated cheese.

  2. Fry the cutlets in hot oil until delicately browned.

  3. Drain carefully and arrange in two rows on a hot dish, slightly overlapping.

  4. Garnish with parsley and serve hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that holds the cutlet together and gives a soft, fluffy interior.
Egg
Binds the mixture and, brushed on the outside, helps the cheese coating adhere and brown.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the interior tender rather than dry.
Grated cheese
Forms a thick crust that melts slightly and browns in the hot oil.

The step that matters

Allow the mixture to cool completely before shaping. Warm potato mixture is soft and sticky, so it will not hold its shape and may crack or fall apart. Cooling firms the starch and fat so the cutlets keep their form in the pan.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, parsley, egg, 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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