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Salad

Hot Potato Salad

A salad of sliced hot potatoes mixed with a bacon‑fat sauce of flour, mustard, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hot Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then slice them thinly while hot.

Make the dressing

  1. Fry the bacon until crispy, then cut it into small pieces to yield ½ cup.

  2. Pour off the bacon fat, leaving 2 tablespoons in the pan.

  3. In the hot bacon fat, stir in the flour, mustard, pepper, and salt to form a smooth paste.

  4. Add the vinegar to the paste, bring it to a boil, and mix it with the hot potatoes.

Serve

  1. Serve the salad while hot.

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

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the body of the salad and absorb the warm dressing as they are sliced while hot.
Bacon fat
Carries flavor and coats the flour and seasonings to form the dressing base.
Flour
Thickens the bacon fat into a smooth paste that gives the dressing body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the bacon fat.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty flavor and crisp texture to the salad.

The step that matters

Forming the smooth paste with flour in the hot bacon fat. Flour must be stirred into the hot fat so its starch is evenly coated and can thicken the liquid; if lumps form or the paste is not stirred smooth, the dressing turns gritty. Adding the vinegar then thins and thickens the dressing together with the hot potatoes.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Potatothe original

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