Name: A Man's Salad: Potato Salad with Chipotle Peppers
Ingredients: 1/2 red pepper, diced; 3 scallions, finely sliced; 0-2 stalk celery , sliced; 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped; 1 cup mayonnaise; 2-4 chipotle chiles in adobo, deseeded and diced finely (or more, use the seeds if you like the heat); 1 tablespoon sugar; 8 slices bacon, cooked very crisp and crumbled reserve 1 tablespoon for garnish; 1 (15 ounces) can black beans, rinsed and drained; 6 hard-boiled eggs, diced; 8 medium red potatoes, cooked,cooled and diced; salt & pepper

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beans + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Provides creamy fat and moisture that binds the salad together.
Red potatoes: Form the starchy base of the salad, holding their shape when cooled and diced.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add creamy richness and body to the salad.
Chipotle chiles in adobo: Supply smoky heat and a deep chipotle flavor throughout the dressing.
Bacon: Adds savory, salty fat and crisp texture as a garnish.
Black beans: Add earthy body and a firm, mild bite to the salad.

The step that matters

Cooling the potatoes before tossing. Warm potatoes absorb dressing unevenly and can turn mushy or make the mayonnaise separate and thin. Cooling them fully first keeps the diced pieces firm and the dressing creamy.

Swap the beans

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

Chickpeafits about as well
Beansthe original
Chestnutfits about as well
Walnutfits about as well

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Black Bean	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	114
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Seed	not in our table	0

A Man's Salad: Potato Salad with Chipotle Peppers