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Salad

Potato Salad, I.

A chilled potato salad with onion, celery salt, mustard, cayenne, vinegar, butter, cream, eggs, and parsley or lettuce garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potato Salad, I.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil and cool the potatoes, then chop them.

  2. Add the chopped onion, salt, celery salt, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the boiling vinegar over the mixture, then add the butter and cream.

  2. Mix in the minced hard boiled eggs thoroughly.

  3. Garnish with parsley or lettuce 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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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 + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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 provide its main body and texture.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft, creamy texture throughout the salad.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the creamy dressing.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the dressing smooth and rich.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded flavour to the warm dressing.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling vinegar over the mixture. Hot vinegar is absorbed by the warm potatoes and onion, seasoning them evenly. Adding cream and butter afterward keeps the dressing smooth rather than curdled or greasy.

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

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

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Capersabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, mustard, pepper, vinegar, butter, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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