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Salad

Potato Salad

A cold salad of minced boiled potatoes, green onions, chopped hard‑boiled eggs, and a vinaigrette of vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, celery seed, and beaten eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the minced potatoes, green onions, and chopped hard-boiled eggs in a large bowl.

  2. Heat the vinegar over medium heat in a saucepan.

  3. Add the mustard, salt, black pepper, and ground celery seed to the vinegar.

  4. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl while the vinegar mixture heats.

Make the dressing

  1. Stir the beaten eggs into the vinegar and mix until smooth.

  2. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to serve.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 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 give it its body.
Eggs
Chopped hard-boiled eggs add texture; beaten eggs thicken the vinegar dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavor.
Green onions
Add mild, fresh onion flavor and a bit of crunch.

The step that matters

Stirring the beaten eggs into the hot vinegar. Egg proteins thicken when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot or is stirred poorly, the eggs can scramble into lumps. Stirring constantly while adding them keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the potato

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

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

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