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Potato Salad

A chilled potato salad with onions, eggs, mustard, vinegar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Steam the potatoes until tender.

  2. Let the potatoes cool.

  3. Cut the cooled potatoes into small pieces.

  4. Season the potatoes with chopped onions, salt, pepper, and a pinch of celery.

Make the dressing

  1. Boil the eggs for 20 minutes.

  2. Mash the egg yolks with butter and mustard until smooth.

  3. Heat the vinegar in a saucepan.

  4. Stir in the mashed egg mixture.

  5. Add the cream to the saucepan. Mix well.

Serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the seasoned potatoes.

  2. Serve.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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 hold the dressing as tender pieces.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the dressing and add a creamy, smooth body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the dressing.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the dressing rich and smooth.
Onions
Add sharp, aromatic flavour to the seasoned potatoes.

The step that matters

Heat the vinegar in a saucepan. Heating vinegar before combining it with the eggs and cream changes how the dressing blends and tastes. Heat should be gentle enough that the eggs do not scramble or curdle when the mixture is combined, which keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, celery, egg, butter, mustard, 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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