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Potato Salad

A potato salad made with sliced potatoes, onion, salt, mustard, chili pepper, sugar, egg, milk, butter, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Cut the potatoes into slices or ½ inch cubes.

  2. Add minced onion or onion juice to the potatoes.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix salt, mustard, chili pepper, and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Heat milk in a double boiler.

  3. Beat the egg.

  4. Add the beaten egg to the hot milk.

  5. Blend the mixture into the vinegar sauce.

  6. Stir the mixture until slightly thickened. Add butter.

  7. Strain the sauce.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the dressing.

  2. Serve the dressing over the potatoes.

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 + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and hold the dressing on their surfaces.
Egg
Thickens the warm milk mixture as its proteins set with gentle heat.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the dressing that the egg thickens.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the dressing a smoother, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture until slightly thickened. The egg proteins set gently as the mixture warms. Too much heat scrambles the egg and leaves lumps, so the double boiler keeps the heat gentle and the mixture must be stirred constantly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, mustard, pepper, sugar, egg, milk, butter. 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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