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Fried Potatoes

Fried potatoes are sliced potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper, dredged in flour, and fried in lard until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Fried Potatoes

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the potatoes and let them cool.

  2. Slice the cooled potatoes.

  3. Season the slices with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Dredge the slices in flour.

Fry

  1. Fry the slices in hot lard until they are a fine light 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body of the dish, with starch that softens inside while the outside crisps.
Flour
Forms a thin coating that browns quickly and helps the slices crisp and hold together in the fat.
Lard
Transfers heat to the potato slices and gives them a rich flavor and golden-brown surface.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard until fine light brown. Lard must be hot enough to set the flour coating quickly. If it is too cool, the slices soak up fat and turn greasy. If it is too hot or left too long, the coating darkens and burns before the potato is cooked through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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.

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