Name: Potato and Egg Salad
Ingredients: five cold baked potatoes into dice; four hard boiled eggs; one lemon

Why it works: Potato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Potato and Egg Salad

Ingredients

five cold baked potatoes into dice
four hard boiled eggs
one lemon

Directions

Prepare

Cut five cold baked potatoes into dice.
Slice four hard boiled eggs.
Pour over the juice of one lemon.

Assemble and serve

Arrange in a bowl and cover with cream dressing.
Serve on lettuce leaves.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

251Calories

11 gProtein

6 gFat

41 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12

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

By Olive M. Hulse. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Provide the bulk and soft starchy body that makes up most of the salad.
Hard boiled eggs: Add firm, creamy-textured richness and a mild savoury flavour to the salad.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts through the richness of the dressing.