Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: cold boiled potatoes, sliced; blanched almonds, quartered; hickory nuts (optional); chopped onions (very small quantity); salad dressing (to taste); chopped parsley (for garnish); cold boiled beets (optional); sliced lemon (optional); anchovies (optional)

Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine sliced cold boiled potatoes, blanched almonds, hickory nuts, and chopped onions.
Pour a small amount of salad dressing over the mixture and toss gently.
Garnish with chopped parsley.
If desired, add cold boiled beets, sliced lemon, and anchovies.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together394 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 absorb the dressing's flavor and moisture.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture and richness that coats the potatoes and binds the salad together.
Blanched almonds: Add a crisp, mild crunch that contrasts with the soft potatoes.
Chopped onions: Add sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the dressing.

Swap the nuts

The recipe marks nuts as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, almond, onion, parsley, lemon):

Chickpeafits better
Pistachiofits better
Cashew nutfits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, almond, onion, parsley, lemon. 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.