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Potato Salad

A chilled salad of sliced potatoes, celery, and a vinegar‑mustard dressing, seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hatfield (Mass.). Congregational Church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slice one dozen cold potatoes thin.

  2. Add one-half teaspoon mustard, one-half teaspoon pepper and one teaspoon salt.

  3. Add butter the size of an egg.

  4. Add one-half cup vinegar and one-half cup water.

  5. Chop celery or a little onion with potatoes.

  6. Let the dressing simmer.

  7. Pour over potatoes while hot.

  8. Cut six cold boiled potatoes into small cubes.

  9. Cut one or two stalks of celery into thin slices.

  10. Put potatoes and celery in salad dish.

  11. Season with salt and pepper.

  12. Optionally add a little parsley.

  13. Pour dressing over the salad.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

180Calories
5 gProtein
1 gFat
40 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Hatfield (Mass.). Congregational Church. 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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's moisture and flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the salad its tangy, sharp flavor.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, vegetal crunch.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and fat that rounds out the sharp dressing.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and a pungent aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Pour the dressing over the potatoes while they are hot. Warm potatoes are more porous and absorb the vinegar, fat and seasoning more fully than cold ones, so the flavor penetrates instead of sitting on the surface.

Swap the potato

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

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

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