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 ↓
Egg or Fish Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Layer the salad
Layer sliced potatoes in a glass bowl or salad dish.
Add a layer of sliced hard-boiled eggs on top.
Sprinkle chopped onion, salt, and pepper over the layers.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, combine raw egg yolk and mustard.
Slowly beat in sweet cream, drop by drop.
Add vinegar and fold in beaten egg white.
Pour dressing over the salad before serving.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Raw egg yolk
- Emulsifies the cream and mustard into a thick, smooth dressing.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness, loosening the dressing into a creamy coating.
- Egg white
- Beaten to stiff froth, it lightens the dressing with air for a fluffy texture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich dressing and cuts its heaviness.
- Potatoes
- Form the starchy base layer that soaks up dressing and gives the salad body.
The step that matters
Slowly beat in sweet cream, drop by drop. Adding cream too fast breaks the yolk emulsion, leaving a thin, separated dressing. Adding it gradually lets the yolk lecithin hold the fat suspended, producing a thick, stable sauce.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, onion, pepper, mustard, cream, vinegar):
- Horseradishfits better
- Chivefits better
- Broccolifits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, onion, pepper, 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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