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Salad

Potato Salad

A chilled salad of boiled potatoes, celery, onion, and a dressing of egg yolks, mustard, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

  1. In a large bowl, combine the sliced potatoes, chopped celery, and onion.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, salt, mustard, and vinegar until smooth.

Assemble and chill

  1. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and gently toss to combine.

  2. Chill 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 hold the dressing between their cut surfaces.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the mustard and vinegar to make a thick, creamy dressing.
Yellow mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps bind the egg yolks into a stable emulsion.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich yolks.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, vegetal crunch against the soft potatoes.

The step that matters

Whisking the dressing until smooth. Yolks, mustard and vinegar must be whisked fully so they emulsify; if they stay separated the dressing will look broken and coat the potatoes unevenly.

Swap the potato

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

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

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