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Crisped Potatoes

Crisped Potatoes are sliced potatoes fried until crisp, seasoned with salt and optional cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Crisped Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash and wipe the potatoes.

  2. Cut them into slices ½ to 1 inch thick and remove the skins.

  3. Pare the potatoes into thin, long ribbons.

  4. Soak the ribbons in cold water for 30 minutes.

  5. Drain the potatoes on a sieve.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat good butter in a pan until very hot.

  2. Fry the potatoes until crisp and lightly browned, about 5-6 minutes.

  3. Drain on a soft cloth and pile in a hot dish.

  4. Sprinkle with a mixture of salt and cayenne pepper before serving.

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

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the crisp exterior and fluffy interior once fried in hot fat.
Good butter
Conducts heat to the potato ribbons and adds richness and browning flavor.

The step that matters

Fry in very hot butter. If the butter is not very hot, the potatoes absorb fat and turn greasy instead of crisping. Starting hot seals the surface quickly so it browns and crisps before the inside becomes oily.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Carrotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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