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 the potatoes
Peel and boil the potatoes until tender.
Cut the potatoes and place them in a large bowl.
Finely chop the onion and add it to the bowl.
Season with salt, pepper, and mustard; mix well.
Make the dressing
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Stir in the flour until it turns light brown.
Remove from heat and quickly stir in the egg and vinegar.
Pour the mixture over the potatoes and mix thoroughly.
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).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 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 bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing's flavour and moisture.
- Flour
- Browned in butter, it thickens the dressing into a smooth, creamy coating.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind and thicken the dressing as it cooks.
- Vinegar
- Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
- Butter
- Adds fat and a rich flavour to the base of the dressing.
- Onion
- Adds sharp aromatic flavour that mellows somewhat in the warm dressing.
The step that matters
Stir the egg and vinegar in quickly, off the heat. Removing the pan from heat before adding the egg keeps it from scrambling. Stirring quickly spreads it evenly so it thickens the dressing smoothly rather than forming lumps.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, mustard, butter, flour, egg, vinegar):
- Chivefits better
- Shallotfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, mustard, butter, flour, egg, vinegar. 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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