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Potato Salad

A salad of sliced potatoes mixed with a vinaigrette of vinegar, oil, mustard, eggs, onion, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Steam the potatoes until tender, then slice them.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix vinegar, oil, mustard, chopped hard-boiled eggs, and minced onion.

  2. Season the dressing with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the sliced potatoes and toss gently to combine.

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

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

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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 hold their shape when sliced and tossed.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Oil
Carries fat and moisture, giving the dressing a smooth, coating texture.
Mustard
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar and adds a sharp, savory bite.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and creamy richness to the dressing.
Onion
Contributes sharp aroma and savory flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Toss gently after dressing the potatoes. Warm, freshly sliced potatoes absorb dressing readily, so gentle tossing coats them evenly without breaking the slices into mush.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, egg, onion, 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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