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Potato Salad

A salad of boiled potatoes mixed with a vinegar mustard dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes in their jackets until tender, then let them cool and peel.

  2. Cut the potatoes into slices or cubes.

Make and add the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, mustard, flour, butter, sugar, salt, pepper, chopped onion, and eggs.

  2. Cook the dressing ingredients together until thickened, then pour over the potatoes.

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.

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. Mustard + oniontop 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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provides the starchy bulk that holds the salad together.
Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, helping thicken and enrich the dressing.
Flour
Its starch swells on heating, thickening the dressing so it coats the potatoes.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the dressing.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the dressing a smoother, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until thickened. Egg proteins set and flour starch swells as the dressing heats, so it needs steady, moderate heat and stirring. Too much heat can scramble the eggs into lumps, while too little leaves the dressing thin.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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