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Salad

Hot Potato Salad

A potato salad with bacon, vinegar, and boiled eggs, served hot.

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 ↓

Hot Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the potatoes in their jackets until tender, then peel and slice them thin.

  2. Slice the onion, cucumber, and boiled eggs thin.

  3. Mix the potatoes, onion, cucumber, and eggs together in a bowl.

  4. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.

Make the bacon dressing

  1. Fry the bacon cut into small squares until crisp.

  2. Combine the bacon with the potato mixture.

  3. Pour 2-3 cups of vinegar into the bacon fat.

  4. Heat the mixture.

  5. Pour the heated vinegar mixture over the salad just 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 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 absorb the warm vinegar dressing.
Bacon
Adds savory, smoky flavor and fat that carries into the vinegar dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing and balances the fat.
Boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft texture to the salad.
Onion
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that mellows in the warm dressing.

The step that matters

Pour the heated vinegar mixture over the salad just before serving. Potato slices absorb warm dressing best while hot, and vinegar added too early can soften the salad and dull its texture. Serving soon after dressing keeps the potatoes tender but not mushy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cucumber, egg, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cucumber, egg, vinegar, pepper. 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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