Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Potato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the salad
Boil the potatoes until tender, then cut them into dice.
Finely chop the celery and add it to the potatoes.
In a saucepan, boil the vinegar and water together with sugar, salt, and pepper.
Once cooled, pour the vinegar mixture over the potatoes and celery.
Make the dressing and serve
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks into the sweet cream.
Mix the cream and egg yolks into the salad before serving.
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.
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 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 hold their shape when diced and cooked until tender.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sugar and cream.
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify with the cream to create a rich, thickened dressing.
- Sweet cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Let the vinegar mixture cool before pouring it over the potatoes. Pouring hot liquid onto warm potatoes can make them break down and turn mushy, while cooled liquid is absorbed more gently and keeps the diced pieces intact.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, vinegar, sugar, pepper, egg, cream):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, vinegar, sugar, pepper, egg, cream. 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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