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Potato Salad

A potato salad with a mustard‑sugar‑vinegar sauce, butter, onion, parsley, and whipped cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the mustard, water, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add the eggs and vinegar, then pour the mixture into a saucepan.

  3. Heat the mixture on the stove to thicken, stirring constantly.

  4. Add the butter and chopped onion, and stir until combined.

Dress and serve

  1. In a large bowl, combine the diced potatoes and parsley.

  2. Pour the sauce over the potatoes and gently mix without breaking them.

  3. Serve on lettuce leaves and top with whipped cream.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set during gentle heating, giving it body.
Potatoes
Provide the bulk and starchy body that the dressing coats.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sugar and richness of the dressing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, softening its sharpness.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, creamy topping that softens the salad's tang.

The step that matters

Heat the dressing while stirring constantly. Egg proteins set when heated, so the dressing can curdle or scramble if it gets too hot or is left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps heat even and gives a smooth, thickened sauce.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

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

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, sugar, egg, vinegar, butter, onion, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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