Name: Potato Salad Plain
Ingredients: 1 quart cooked and sliced potatoes; 1 small onion, diced or chopped; 1 cup vinegar; Parsley, to taste; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; 1 tablespoon salad oil or fried bacon fat

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Salad Plain

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the cooked and sliced potatoes with the diced onion.
Add the vinegar, parsley, salt, and pepper. Pour in the salad oil or bacon fat.
Mix everything together by pouring from one bowl to another and shaking well.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the fat and starch.
Salad oil or bacon fat: Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the potatoes a smoother mouthfeel.
Onion: Adds sharp aroma and pungency to the salad.

The step that matters

Mix everything together by pouring from one bowl to another and shaking well.. Potatoes are fragile and can break apart, while dressing that is not evenly distributed leaves some pieces bland and others greasy or sharp. Gentle tossing coats each piece evenly without mashing it.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

Carrotbetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Shallotbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, vinegar, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

Chicken Salad623 recipes

Salad Dressing491 recipes

Tomato Salad179 recipes

Cold Slaw160 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.

Potato Salad Plain