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Potato Ribbons

Potato ribbons are thin sliced potatoes fried until crisp, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Ribbons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into long, thin ribbon-like pieces.

  2. Soak the ribbons in cold water, then drain them on a soft, dry cloth.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the ribbons in boiling oil, butter, or coconut butter until crisp and brown.

  2. Drain the fried ribbons on tissue paper.

  3. Arrange the ribbons on a dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and garnish with 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Potato + coconuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together375 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the crisp, starchy ribbons that become the main body of the dish.
Oil
Conducts heat quickly so the ribbons crisp and brown evenly while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and aroma, and helps the ribbons brown through milk solids.
Coconut butter
Adds fat for frying, contributing a rich, slightly sweet aroma.

The step that matters

Drying the ribbons before frying. Soaking washes away surface starch, and drying on a soft dry cloth removes surface water. Any remaining moisture turns to steam in hot oil, which keeps the ribbons from crisping and can cause hot oil to spatter.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Coconutthe original

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