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Potato Salad

A salad of mashed potatoes, onion, eggs, and a vinegar‑butter dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the potatoes until well done, then mash them.

  2. In a bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, chopped onion, and chopped hard boiled eggs.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, whisk together the 2 eggs, vinegar, butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Combine and finish

  1. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and mix well.

  2. Add a little sugar to taste.

  3. Slice a hard boiled egg and use it to decorate the top of the salad.

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 bulk of the salad and, once mashed, give it a soft, creamy body.
Eggs
Thicken the cooked dressing as they set and add richness to the salad.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the cooked dressing smooth and rounds out its flavour.
Onion
Adds sharp, aromatic flavour that runs through the potato base.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing over low heat. Eggs set quickly when heated. Cooking gently while stirring constantly keeps the dressing smooth and thickened instead of scrambled or lumpy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, vinegar, butter, pepper, sugar. 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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