Why it works: White wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Potatoe Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Peel and pound the potatoes in a mortar until smooth.
Mix in salt, white wine, sugar, cinnamon, and butter.
Roll out the mixture with a little flour and cut into wine glass-sized pieces.
Fry and serve
Fry the pieces in boiling clarified dripping until golden brown.
Serve with sifted loaf sugar sprinkled on top.
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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White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Potato + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,012 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the bulk of the fritter, giving a smooth, starchy body once pounded.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture to the dough.
- White wine
- Adds moisture and acidity that loosen the mixture and brighten its flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and promotes browning during frying.
The step that matters
Fry until golden brown in boiling dripping. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the pieces soak up grease and turn heavy instead of browning well.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, sugar, cinnamon, butter, flour):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, sugar, cinnamon, butter, 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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