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 until tender, then cut them into 1-inch square pieces.
Slice the raw onions finely, using 1 onion for every 1 to 6 potatoes.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, mix the hard-boiled egg yolks with mustard and salt.
Slowly add the olive oil while stirring constantly, to taste.
Stir in the vinegar, sugar, and thick cream.
Combine
Combine the potatoes and onions with the dressing, stirring gently.
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).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,458 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 hold their shape when cut and tossed.
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Emulsify with the oil and mustard to give the dressing a thick, creamy body.
- Olive oil
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping form the emulsified dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion of yolks and oil.
- Thick cream
- Adds smoothness and moisture, softening the dressing's sharpness.
The step that matters
Slowly add the olive oil while stirring constantly. Oil added too fast can't be absorbed by the egg yolks and mustard, so the dressing separates and turns greasy instead of thick and creamy. Adding it in a slow stream while stirring lets fine droplets form a stable emulsion.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, mustard, olive, vinegar, sugar, cream):
- Horseradishfits better
- Chivefits better
- Broccolifits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, mustard, olive, vinegar, sugar, cream. 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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