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German Potato

A cold potato salad with bacon, onion, flour, vinegar, water, parsley, and boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

German Potato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cold boiled potatoes and onion.

  2. Cut the bacon into small cubes and fry until crispy.

Make the dressing

  1. Add the browned flour to the bacon.

  2. Stir in equal parts vinegar and water.

Serve

  1. Garnish with parsley and sliced cold boiled eggs.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon
Fat rendered from the bacon carries flavour and helps build the savoury base of the dressing.
Flour
Once browned with the bacon fat, it thickens the dressing into a smooth, coating sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavour and balances the fat.
Potatoes
Form the body of the salad and soak up the warm dressing as it is added.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. Flour must be cooked in the bacon fat until lightly browned before liquid is added. Raw flour tastes pasty and thickens unevenly, while browned flour gives a nutty flavour and a smoother sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, vinegar, parsley, egg. 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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