Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 1 pint boiled potatoes; 3 hard-boiled eggs; 1 onion, minced; cooked dressing; ½ pound crisp bacon (optional)

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the onion finely.
Cut the boiled potatoes into cubes.
Cut the yolks and whites of the hard-boiled eggs into small pieces or rings.

Assemble

Mix the potatoes, eggs, and onion with the cooked dressing.
For a decorative touch, scoop the potatoes into balls using a vegetable scoop.
Add crisp bacon if desired.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + oniontop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,333 recipes

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

Egg and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,333 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled potatoes: Provide the bulk of the salad and a soft, starchy body that holds the dressing.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
Cooked dressing: Adds moisture and flavour, coating the potatoes and eggs.
Onion: Adds sharp, aromatic flavour that cuts through the richness.