Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Hot Potato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and peel the potatoes.
Cut the potatoes into balls using a French vegetable cutter.
Cook and dress
Cook the potato balls in boiling salted water until soft.
Drain the potatoes and pour over your choice of dressing.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 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 main body of the salad and absorb the dressing as the salad is served.
- Dressing of your choice
- Adds moisture and flavour to the potatoes.
The step that matters
Cook the potato balls until soft. Potatoes that are undercooked stay firm and hard in the centre, while overcooked ones break apart. Cooking them until just tender lets them hold their shape and still absorb the dressing well.
“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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