Name: Devilled Ham Salad
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons devilled ham; 4 tablespoons grated horseradish; ¾ teaspoon salt; 3 cups cold boiled potatoes, diced; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; hard boiled eggs, cut in quarters lengthwise, for garnish; sliced gherkins, for garnish; sprigs of fresh parsley, for garnish

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Devilled Ham Salad

Ingredients

2 teaspoons devilled ham
4 tablespoons grated horseradish
¾ teaspoon salt
3 cups cold boiled potatoes, diced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
hard boiled eggs, cut in quarters lengthwise, for garnish
sliced gherkins, for garnish
sprigs of fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions

Prepare

Mix the devilled ham with the grated horseradish.
Sprinkle salt over the diced cold boiled potatoes and add lemon juice.
Gently stir in half of the ham mixture and pour the remaining mixture over the potatoes.

Garnish and serve

Garnish with hard boiled eggs, sliced gherkins, and fresh parsley.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Horseradish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together562 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Horseradish + potatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Horseradish + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes: Form the bulk of the salad, providing body and a soft, starchy texture.
Devilled ham: Adds savoury, meaty flavour and a rich colour to the dressing.
Grated horseradish: Adds sharp, pungent heat that cuts through the richness of the ham.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, potato, lemon, egg, parsley):

Asparagusfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, potato, lemon, egg, 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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Devilled Ham Salad