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Potato Salad

A potato salad with onions, eggs, celery, and a mustard‑flour dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Peel and cube the potatoes.

  3. Combine the potatoes, grated onion, chopped hard boiled eggs, and celery in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg in a separate bowl.

  2. Add mustard, flour, sugar, and salt to the beaten egg. Mix well.

  3. Gradually add vinegar. Stir until combined.

  4. Slowly add milk while stirring. Heat over low flame until thickened like custard.

  5. Remove from heat. Add butter.

Assemble

  1. Pour the dressing over 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. 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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 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 hold the dressing as they cook and cool.
Eggs
The beaten egg thickens the dressing into a custard-like sauce as it heats.
Flour
Thickens the dressing together with the egg as it heats over low flame.
Milk
Adds creaminess to the dressing and helps it thicken into a smooth custard.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness and richness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth finish to the dressing when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing. Heat over low flame until thickened like custard. Egg proteins set gently at low temperature; too much heat can scramble the egg and leave lumps, so keep the heat low and stir constantly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, egg, sugar, butter, flour, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, egg, sugar, butter, flour, mustard. 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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