Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Raw Potato Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Grate the potatoes and place them in a bowl with the beaten eggs.
Add the sweet milk, flour, salt, and baking powder.
Mix well until combined.
Cook and serve
Heat a griddle and fry the mixture as you would for batter cakes.
Serve hot, using more grease for frying if needed.
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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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Grated raw potatoes
- Provide the bulk and starchy body of the cake, giving it a tender, moist interior.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cakes together as they cook.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help set the cakes as they cook.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking, helping the cakes rise and lighten.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and liquid so the flour hydrates into a pourable batter.
The step that matters
Mix well until combined. Grated potato releases liquid and starch that can separate from the batter if left standing. Thorough mixing distributes the baking powder and binds the batter, so the cakes rise evenly and hold together in the pan.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, milk):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk. 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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