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Salad

A Good Potato Salad

A potato salad made with boiled potatoes, onions, beets, butter, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

A Good Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the potatoes in their jackets until tender.

  2. Slice the boiled potatoes thickly.

  3. Finely chop the onions.

  4. Add the chopped onions to the potatoes.

  5. Cook the beets until tender.

  6. Chop the cooked beets.

  7. Add the chopped beets to the mixture.

Dress and serve

  1. Melt the butter.

  2. Mix the melted butter with the vinegar.

  3. Add the butter‑vinegar mixture gradually to the salad.

  4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Add mustard last.

  6. Transfer the salad to a serving dish.

  7. Garnish with chopped beets and parsley.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 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 their shape when sliced after boiling.
Onions
Add sharp, aromatic flavor that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Beets
Add earthy sweetness and a deep color to the salad.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the beets.
Mustard
Adds pungency and sharpness to the dressing.

The step that matters

Add the butter-vinegar mixture gradually. Adding the dressing slowly and tossing gently lets it coat the warm potato slices evenly, so the salad is seasoned throughout without breaking up the slices.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, vinegar, mustard, 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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