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Salad

German Potato Salad

A warm potato salad with butter, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

German Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash and boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. While hot, peel and slice the potatoes thinly with the onion.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Make the dressing and serve

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter until browned.

  2. Pour in the vinegar and bring to a boil.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the salad and stir gently.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the body of the salad and soak up the warm dressing.
Butter
Adds rich, nutty flavour when browned and carries flavour into the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the butter and potatoes.
Onion
Adds sharp, aromatic flavour that mellows in the warm dressing.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the salad and stir gently. The potatoes must still be warm so they absorb the hot vinegar dressing well. Stirring gently keeps the thin slices from breaking apart while they coat evenly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, butter, 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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