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Salad

Potato Salad

A chilled salad of sliced boiled potatoes dressed with vinegar, oil, pepper, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the potatoes into slices about ½ inch thick.

  2. Place the potato slices in a salad bowl.

Dress and chill

  1. Add the vinegar and salad oil.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and minced parsley.

  3. Stir well to combine all ingredients.

  4. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours before serving.

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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. 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 hold the dressing in their slices.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the oil.
Salad oil
Carries fat-soluble flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, coating texture.

The step that matters

Stir well to combine all ingredients. Cold potatoes are firm and absorb dressing slowly. Thorough stirring spreads the vinegar and oil over every slice, so the salad tastes evenly seasoned rather than sharp in some spots and bland in others.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, pepper, parsley. 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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