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Salad

German Potato Salad

A salad of sliced boiled potatoes, parsley, bacon, pepper, salt, and cream dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

German Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the sliced cold boiled potatoes and minced parsley.

  2. Add the fried diced bacon along with its fat.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Mix everything well with the cream salad dressing.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 absorb the dressing's flavor and moisture.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savory flavor and fat that carries flavor through the salad.
Cream salad dressing
Provides creamy moisture and tang that coats the potatoes and binds the salad.

The step that matters

Dress the potatoes while they are still cool. Cold boiled potatoes are firm and hold their shape, so they stay intact when mixed. Adding dressing gently and mixing well ensures even coating without breaking the slices into mush.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, pepper, cream):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Parsnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, pepper, cream. 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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