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Salad

Potato Salad

A chilled potato salad with sliced potatoes, hard‑boiled eggs, walnuts, onion, celery, and a dressing of vinegar, mustard, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Combine 1 cup vinegar, 1 tablespoon flour, 4 or 5 tablespoons butter, 3/4 teaspoon pepper, yolks of 8 eggs, a little water, 1 level tablespoon mustard, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon sugar.

  2. Cook all of these into a stiff, soft custard.

  3. Put on ice until cold.

  4. Add 1 pint whipped cream.

  5. Stir together lightly with a large fork.

  6. Pour over salad the day you are to use it.

  7. If it stands overnight with the whipped cream in it, it sometimes becomes watery.

Prepare the salad

  1. Slice 6 large potatoes very thin.

  2. Do not boil until too mealy.

  3. Slice 8 or 10 hard-boiled eggs thin.

  4. Chop 1 very small onion finely.

  5. Soak 1 cup celery in salt water for half an hour.

  6. Cut celery into small pieces with scissors, do not chop.

  7. Cut 1 cup English walnuts into small pieces.

  8. Stir potatoes, eggs, onion, celery, and walnuts together.

  9. Mix dressing lightly with a two-pronged fork.

  10. Serve ice-cold on lettuce leaves.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

542Calories
13 gProtein
34 gFat
50 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)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.

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks set the dressing into a stiff custard and add richness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the custard dressing.
Whipped cream (in the method)
Adds lightness and creaminess to the dressed salad.
Potatoes
Form the main body of the salad.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavour.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the custard dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing to a stiff, soft custard. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overcooking can curdle them and make the dressing grainy. Cook gently, stirring, until it coats a spoon, then chill fully before adding the cream.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, potato, onion, vinegar, mustard. 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.

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