Skip to main content
Main

Potato Salad

A chilled potato salad with boiled potatoes, green onions, hard‑boiled eggs, and a vinegar‑mustard dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the minced cold boiled potatoes, green onions, and hard-boiled eggs.

Make the dressing

  1. Place one cup of vinegar on the fire.

  2. Add one teaspoonful mustard, one teaspoon salt, one-half cup black pepper, and one-half cup ground celery seed.

  3. While the vinegar is coming to a boil, add three well beaten eggs.

  4. Remove the pot and stir until smooth.

Rest and serve

  1. Set aside until ready to serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

301Calories
12 gProtein
6 gFat
51 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Celery Seed1 stalk (40g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Mustard + celerytop 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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Potato + celerytop 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 and body of the salad.
Eggs
Thicken the hot vinegar mixture into a creamy, smooth dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the dressing.
Celery seed
Adds an aromatic, savoury celery flavour.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs while the vinegar is hot, then stir until smooth. Egg proteins thicken when heated, so the hot vinegar cooks the eggs into a smooth dressing. Adding them to vinegar that is too hot or leaving them over heat too long can make them curdle or turn grainy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, mustard, pepper, celery, 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.

More potato salad recipes

German 31Hot 19Dressing 17Anchovy 15French 10American 9 See all 504 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes