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Potato Salad with Cheese

A chilled potato salad mixed with cream, butter, cheese, paprika, onion juice, and bacon-infused cream dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Potato Salad with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the potato base

  1. Mash the potatoes until smooth.

  2. Add coarse sea salt to taste.

  3. Beat in the rich, sweet cream and butter.

Shape and serve

  1. Once cold, stir in the grated cheese, paprika, and onion juice.

  2. Form the mixture into balls and roll in chopped parsley.

  3. Serve on lettuce leaves with Cream Dressing mixed with minced bacon.

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. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  4. Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

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, mashed body.
Rich, sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the mashed potato texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother texture and richer flavor.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and body that helps the mixture hold its shape.
Onion juice
Adds sharp acidity and aroma to balance the rich dairy and fat.

The step that matters

Once cold, stir in the grated cheese, paprika, and onion juice.. Adding cheese to hot potatoes can cause it to turn greasy and stringy rather than blending smoothly. Letting the mash cool first lets the cheese mix evenly and keeps the balls firm enough to shape.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cream, butter, cheese, onion, parsley):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cream, butter, cheese, onion, parsley. 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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