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 ↓
Potato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender but not broken.
Peel and slice the potatoes while warm.
Let the potatoes cool, but not become ice cold.
Dress and serve
Sprinkle the chopped onion or olives over the potatoes.
Pour enough French dressing over the potatoes to moisten them well.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 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
- Provide the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing as they cool.
- French dressing
- Adds moisture and tang that moistens the potatoes and carries flavour through the salad.
The step that matters
Let the potatoes cool, but not become ice cold. Warm potatoes absorb dressing readily, so the flavour penetrates well. Chilling them fully stops that absorption, leaving the dressing sitting on the surface.
“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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