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Anna Roubik

A potato salad made with boiled potatoes, bacon, onions, vinegar, water, sugar, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,023 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Anna Roubik

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Scrub potatoes.

  2. Boil potatoes until tender.

  3. Drain potatoes, while hot peel and cut into one-fourth-inch slices, add salt and pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. Place bacon in skillet and pour over it two tablespoons of boiling water, and let fry light brown.

  2. Add vinegar, water, sugar and flour mixed with one-fourth cup of cold water.

  3. Cook until smooth.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour one-quarter cup boiling water over potatoes before adding dressing.

  2. Pour over sliced potatoes, add onions and mix thoroughly.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,814 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 absorb the dressing as they sit warm.
Bacon
Supplies fat and smoky flavor that carries into the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
Flour
Thickens the dressing so it becomes smooth and clings to the potatoes.
Onion
Adds sharp aroma and a crisp bite against the soft potatoes.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until smooth. Flour must be fully cooked in the hot liquid to thicken evenly. Stirring it into the mixture as it heats keeps it from clumping, which would leave lumps in the dressing.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, vinegar, sugar, flour, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Mustardbetter flavor fit
  3. Beetrootbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, vinegar, sugar, flour, pepper. 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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