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
Cut cold boiled potatoes into balls, blanch, and cook until tender.
Dress the potato balls with paprika, salt, oil, onion juice, and vinegar, tossing after each addition.
Garnish with pickled beets and serve in lettuce nests with cold meat.
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 + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together322 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,562 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 their shape once cooked and dressed.
- Oil
- Coats the potatoes, adding richness and a smooth, moist mouthfeel.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and sharpens the dressing.
- Onion juice
- Adds a sharp savory aroma without the bite of chopped onion pieces.
- Paprika
- Adds mild color and a gentle, slightly sweet aroma.
The step that matters
Tossing the dressing in additions. Adding each dressing ingredient separately and tossing between additions spreads the oil and acid evenly over every potato piece. Dumping everything in at once can leave some pieces greasy and others bland, and the oil and vinegar separate rather than coat.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, vinegar):
- Chivefits better
- Mustardfits better
- Broccolifits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, 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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