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Potato Eggs

Mashed potatoes shaped into small egg-like forms, coated in bread crumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes until perfectly smooth.

  2. Add the butter, beaten egg yolk, pounded onion, minced parsley, pepper, and salt; mix well.

  3. Shape the mixture into small egg or pear shapes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each shape in a well-beaten egg, then coat with seasoned grated bread.

  2. Fry in plenty of lard or dripping until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Drain on paper towels and serve with a fringe of fried parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 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

Boiled potatoes
Form the soft, starchy body that holds the shape of each egg.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potato.
Beaten egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the shapes hold together.
Grated bread
Forms a crisp golden crust when fried.

The step that matters

Coat and fry. The beaten egg and bread coating must cover each shape fully, or the potato will break open in hot fat. Frying in plenty of fat at a steady heat browns the crust evenly and seals it before the inside falls apart.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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