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Salad

Potato Salad

A salad of boiled potatoes mixed with celery, onion, and a creamy sauce of eggs, sweet cream, vinegar, mustard, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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 potatoes and vegetables

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then let them cool and cut into small pieces.

  2. Chop the celery and onion, then combine them with the potatoes in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the beaten eggs, sweet cream, vinegar, mustard, melted butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat until it thickens to a creamy consistency.

Combine

  1. Once cooled, pour the sauce over the potato mixture and stir 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. 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 once cut into pieces.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set during gentle cooking, giving it a creamy body.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the sharp tang of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a smooth mouthfeel and rounded flavour in the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat. Eggs thicken as their proteins set, but high heat can curdle them into lumps. Gentle, steady heat and constant stirring give a smooth, creamy dressing.

Swap the celery

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

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

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