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Salad

Plain Potato

A potato salad made with sliced potatoes, celery, cream, mustard, egg, and vinegar, topped with hard boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Plain Potato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the potatoes finely and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Finely chop the celery.

Make the dressing

  1. Combine the cream, salt, pepper, mustard, and egg in a saucepan.

  2. Warm the mixture over low heat.

  3. Add the vinegar.

  4. Stir until it comes to a boil.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the potatoes.

  2. Mix well.

  3. Decorate with sliced hard boiled eggs 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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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.
Cream
Gives the dressing a rich, smooth body and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.
Egg
Thickens the dressing as it warms and helps it hold together.
White vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the cream.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Stir until it comes to a boil. Egg proteins thicken the dressing as it heats, but if it overheats or curdles, it turns grainy. Warm gently over low heat and stir constantly to keep it smooth.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, celery, cream, mustard, egg, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, celery, cream, mustard, 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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