Name: Garden Potato Salad I
Ingredients: 6 (about 3 lb) large potatoes, boiled in jackets, peeled, cut into 4-inch cubes; 1 cup celery, chopped; ½ cup green onion, sliced; 2 tbsp parsley, chopped; 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese; ¾ cup skim milk; 3 tbsp lemon juice; 2 tbsp cider vinegar; ½ tsp celery seed; ½ tsp dill weed; ½ tsp dry mustard; ½ tsp white pepper

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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, providing starchy body that holds the dressing.
Low-fat cottage cheese: Makes the creamy dressing base, giving body without mayonnaise.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the creaminess.
Cider vinegar: Adds sharp acidity that sharpens flavour and works with the lemon.
Skim milk: Thins the blended cottage cheese into a smooth, pourable dressing.

The step that matters

Blending the dressing until smooth. Cottage cheese stays grainy unless blended thoroughly with the liquids. A smooth mixture coats the potatoes evenly instead of forming curds.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, celery, parsley, cottage cheese, milk, lemon, cider):

Carrotfits better
Tomatofits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, celery, parsley, cottage cheese, milk, lemon, cider. 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
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Cottage Cheese	1/2 cup (113g) 2%	98
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Celery Seed	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Cider	not in our table	0

Garden Potato Salad I