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Potato Salad

A layered salad of cold boiled potatoes, onion, hard boiled egg, optional meat, and a creamy mustard dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, beat the egg yolk, then mix in dry mustard.

  2. Slowly add cream while beating constantly.

  3. Stir in vinegar and beaten egg white.

  4. Chill the dressing until ready to serve.

Layer the salad

  1. Layer cold boiled potatoes in a dish.

  2. Sprinkle with onion, then add slices of hard boiled egg.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Add one-third of the dressing.

  5. Repeat the layers until you have three layers, adding tender meat if desired.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing's flavor and moisture.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies the cream and mustard into a smooth, thick dressing.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the dressing, softening its sharpness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.
Egg white
Beaten white lightens the dressing and adds a airy texture.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps stabilize the emulsified dressing.

The step that matters

Slowly add cream while beating constantly. Adding cream gradually while beating lets the egg yolk emulsify it into a smooth dressing. Adding it too fast can cause the mixture to separate and turn thin and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, pepper, meat, mustard, cream, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, pepper, meat, mustard, cream, 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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