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Potato Salad

A layered potato salad with a vinegar and butter dressing, eggs, celery, onion, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Slice the potatoes very thin and layer them in a salad dish, alternating with the celery, eggs, and onion, seasoning with salt to taste.

Make the dressing

  1. Warm the vinegar and butter together in a saucepan.

  2. Mix the sugar, mustard, and salt with a little water, then add to the warm vinegar mixture.

  3. Beat the eggs and stir them into the vinegar mixture, cooking in a double boiler until thick.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the olive oil.

Assemble and rest

  1. Allow the dressing to cool, pour it over the layered potatoes, and let stand for one hour before serving.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

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 salad and absorb the dressing's flavor as they stand.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing's tang.
Eggs
Beaten and cooked into the warm vinegar mixture, they thicken the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, softening the sharp taste of the dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavor to the warm vinegar base.

The step that matters

Cooking the eggs into the vinegar mixture in a double boiler. Gentle indirect heat lets the beaten eggs thicken smoothly. Direct high heat can scramble the eggs into lumps and leave the dressing grainy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, egg, vinegar, butter, sugar, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, egg, vinegar, butter, sugar, mustard. 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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