Why it works: Potato and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Fried Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and wash the potatoes.
Cut them into fine slices, about ½ inch thick.
Fry
Heat the clarified fat in a deep pan until very hot.
Plunge the potato slices into the hot fat and cook slowly until soft, about 10 minutes.
Remove the potatoes with a skimmer and drain them.
Heat the fat again to boiling point and return the potatoes to the pan.
Smooth them down with the skimmer and cook for 2 more minutes until they swell up.
Finish and serve
Lift them out, drain again, sprinkle with salt, and serve on a hot dish with a folded napkin.
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.
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Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Starch that softens in hot fat and becomes fluffy inside while the outside crisps.
- Clarified beef fat or cooking oil
- Heat-transfer medium that cooks the potatoes evenly and gives them a golden, crisp surface.
The step that matters
Heating the fat again before returning the potatoes. The fat must return to boiling point so the potato surfaces seal and crisp quickly. If the fat is not hot enough, the potatoes absorb grease, turn heavy and soggy, and fail to swell.
“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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