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 Saead
Ingredients
Directions
Dress the potatoes
Slice the boiled potatoes while they are hot.
Pour the French dressing mixed with onion juice over the potatoes.
Let the mixture stand until perfectly cold.
Add the bacon
Fry the bacon until crisp, then cut it into small pieces.
Add the bacon just before serving to enhance the flavor.
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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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the salad's body and absorb the dressing's flavor and moisture.
- French dressing
- Adds moisture, acidity and tang that season the potatoes.
- Bacon
- Adds savory fat, salty flavor and a crisp contrast to the soft potatoes.
The step that matters
Pour the dressing over the potatoes while they are still hot. Warm potato starch is more open and absorbs dressing more readily, so the flavor penetrates the slices instead of sitting on the surface.
“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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