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Potato Salad

A baked layered potato salad with mashed potatoes, hard‑boiled eggs, mustard dressing, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes until fine.

  2. Season with butter, pepper, salt, and sweet cream.

  3. Chop the whites of the hard-boiled eggs and mash the yolks.

  4. Mix the yolks with mustard, sugar, pepper, and vinegar to moisten.

Layer and bake

  1. In a flat pan, layer mashed potatoes and spoon the dressing over in spots.

  2. Repeat layers, finishing with mashed potatoes on top.

  3. Smooth the top and bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

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 + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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 soften into a creamy, spreadable base when mashed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mashed potatoes a smoother, softer texture.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the mashed potatoes for a creamy texture.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and richness through the mashed yolks and chopped whites.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the eggs and butter.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Smooth the top and bake until browned. Baking at high heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, adding flavour and colour. Pale or undercooked tops can leave the layers soft and the flavours flat.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, egg, mustard, sugar, 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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