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Potato Salad

A salad of cold boiled potatoes, almonds, egg, mustard, and a dressing of butter, cream, vinegar, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Cut cold boiled potatoes into small dice.

  2. Add half the quantity of chopped blanched almonds and mix well.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine egg, salt, mustard, cayenne pepper, melted butter, cream, and vinegar. Cook until the dressing thickens, then set aside to cool.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together246 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks and gives it a creamy body.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that makes the dressing smooth.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Chopped blanched almonds
Adds crunch and nutty texture to the potatoes.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing. The egg mixture thickens as it heats, but if it gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Heat it gently and stir constantly until it coats a spoon, then let it cool.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, mustard, pepper, butter, cream, 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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