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Crisped Potatoes, or Potato-ribbons

Crisped potatoes are thinly sliced potatoes fried until crisp, then seasoned with salt and 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, or Potato-ribbons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and wipe the potatoes, then cut them into slices ½ to 1 inch thick.

  2. Drain the potato slices well.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the lard, butter, or clarified dripping in a pan until very hot.

  2. Fry the potato slices until they are crisp and lightly browned, about 5 to 6 minutes.

  3. Drain and dry the fried potatoes on a soft cloth.

  4. Place them in a hot dish and sprinkle with a mixture of coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

  5. Serve immediately.

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, browned exterior and the soft interior of the dish.
Lard, butter, or clarified dripping
Conducts heat in the hot pan and gives the slices browning and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Fry in very hot fat. Frying in fat that is already very hot seals the surface quickly, so the slices crisp and brown rather than absorbing grease and turning soggy. Draining and drying the slices beforehand removes surface water that would otherwise cool the fat and slow browning.

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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