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Potato Sauce

A sauce made from boiled potatoes and onions, seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes and onions

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. In another pot, boil equal quantities of onions until soft.

  3. Drain the onions through a colander and mash them finely.

Make the sauce

  1. Season the mashed onions with pepper and coarse sea salt, then add a piece of butter.

  2. Cut the boiled potatoes into pieces about 1 inch square and mix them with the onions.

  3. Heat the mixture over the fire for a few minutes until hot.

  4. Pour in enough vinegar to flavor and serve immediately.

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
Provide the bulk and starchy body that thickens the sauce as it mixes with the onions.
Onions
Supply sweetness and savory depth once softened and mashed.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the starch and onion sweetness.

The step that matters

Heating the mixture until just hot. Heating only for a few minutes is enough to warm the mashed potato and onion without over-stirring. Overworking cooked potato releases more starch and turns the texture gluey, so keep the heat gentle and stop once hot.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, butter, 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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