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Salad

Potato Salad with Bacon

A potato salad made with boiled potatoes, bacon, onions, and a vinegar-based dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Salad with Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Scrub the potatoes and boil them until tender.

  2. Drain the potatoes, peel them while hot, cut into ¼‑inch slices, and season with salt and pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. In a skillet, cook the bacon until light brown, adding 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

  2. Stir in the vinegar, water, sugar, and flour mixed with ¼ cup of cold water. Cook the mixture until smooth.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the sliced potatoes, add the onions, and mix thoroughly.

  2. Before serving, pour ¼ cup of boiling water over the potatoes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 absorb the dressing as they are sliced warm.
Bacon
Adds smoky fat and savory flavor to the dressing as it renders and browns.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the tangy dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Flour
Thickens the dressing so it coats the potato slices instead of running off.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until smooth. Flour must be fully cooked in the liquid to thicken evenly and lose its raw taste. Stirring while it heats prevents lumps, so the dressing coats the potatoes smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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