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Potato Salad

A potato salad with sliced potatoes, onion, hard‑boiled eggs, and a vinaigrette of oil, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

  1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender, then peel and slice them finely.

  2. Finely chop the onion.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with the salad oil.

  2. Add pepper, salt, and vinegar to the yolks.

  3. Chop the egg whites very finely.

  4. Mix the chopped egg whites into the sauce.

Assemble

  1. Pour the sauce over the potatoes.

  2. Mix well to ensure the potatoes are thoroughly moistened.

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. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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 absorb the dressing as their starchy slices soak up flavor.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil to make a smooth, creamy sauce that coats the potatoes.
Chopped egg whites
Add a firm, chewy texture and mild body to the sauce.
Salad oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the sauce a silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the yolks.
Onion
Contributes sharp aroma and a pungent bite to the salad.

The step that matters

Mix well to moisten the potatoes thoroughly. Sliced potatoes only taste seasoned where the dressing reaches them. Thorough mixing spreads the sauce evenly over every slice, so dry patches and bland bites are avoided.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, pepper, 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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