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Potato Salad

A cold salad of boiled potatoes, celery, eggs, onions, dressed with egg yolk, oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 the salad

  1. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, celery, chopped eggs, and onions.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Set aside.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolk.

  2. Slowly add oil drop by drop while stirring constantly until thick.

  3. Add vinegar to achieve a thick custard-like consistency.

Combine and garnish

  1. Mix the dressing with the potato mixture.

  2. Garnish with additional chopped hard boiled eggs and celery tops.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, letting the dressing thicken into a smooth, custard-like sauce.
Oil
Adds fat and richness, forming the body of the emulsified dressing with the yolk.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad, absorbing dressing and providing a soft, starchy texture.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a creamy texture that blends with the dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the oil drop by drop. Oil must be added slowly while stirring so the yolk can emulsify it. Adding it too fast causes the dressing to break and stay thin and greasy instead of thick.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, celery, egg, pepper, vinegar. 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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