Name: Great American Potato Salad 2
Ingredients: 1 cup Miracle Whip Salad Dressing; 1 teaspoon mustard; 1/2 teaspoon celery seed; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/8 teaspoon pepper; 4 cups potatoes, cooked and cubed; 2 boiled eggs, chopped; 1/2 cup onion, chopped; 1/2 cup celery, sliced; 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 ↓

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 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 and provide its soft, starchy body.
Eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture through their chopped yolks and whites.
Miracle whip salad dressing: Supplies the creamy, tangy emulsified base that coats and binds the salad.
Sweet pickle relish: Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich dressing.

The step that matters

Add potatoes, eggs, onion, celery, and pickle; mix lightly.. Cooked potatoes are fragile and break down easily when stirred hard, turning the salad mushy. Gentle folding keeps the cubes intact and distributes the dressing evenly without overworking the starch.

Swap the onion

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

Horseradishfits better
Chivefits better
Lettucefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, celery, pepper, potato, egg. 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
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Celery Seed	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Salad Dressing	not in our table	0
Relish	not in our table	0

Great American Potato Salad 2