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
Boil the potatoes until tender, then cool and peel them.
Chop the cold boiled potatoes into bite-sized pieces.
Chop the hard-boiled eggs, onion, and celery.
Assemble
In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, onion, and celery.
Mix in the mayonnaise until everything is well coated.
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 + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + celerytop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,334 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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 give it a soft, starchy body.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds fat and moisture that bind the salad and coat the other ingredients.
- Onion
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness.
- Celery
- Adds a crisp, fresh crunch against the soft potatoes.
The step that matters
Cool the potatoes before mixing in the mayonnaise. Warm potatoes absorb mayonnaise unevenly and can turn the dressing thin and greasy, while cold potatoes hold their shape and stay evenly coated.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, onion):
- Garlicfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Dillfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, onion. 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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