Skip to main content
Dessert

Potato Salad Dressing

A creamy dressing made with boiled potato, butter, oil, salt, cayenne pepper, egg yolks, vinegar, and onion juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Press the boiled potato through a fine sieve.

  2. While warm, add the butter and oil (if using).

  3. Stir in the salt and cayenne pepper.

  4. Gradually work in the uncooked egg yolks.

  5. Press the hard-boiled yolks through a fine sieve and add them.

  6. Gradually mix in the vinegar.

  7. Add the onion juice or rub the bowl with onion before adding ingredients.

  8. Blend well and refrigerate until needed.

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. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + tarragontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Uncooked egg yolks
Emulsify the butter and oil, giving the dressing a thick, creamy body.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, thickening body to the dressing.
Boiled potato
Provides bulk and a smooth, starchy body that helps hold the dressing together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the fats.

The step that matters

Gradually work in the uncooked egg yolks. Adding raw yolks too quickly can prevent them from emulsifying with the fat, causing the dressing to separate or turn greasy. Adding them slowly while working the mixture lets the lecithin in the yolks bind the fat and liquid into a stable, creamy emulsion.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, egg, tarragon. 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.

You might also like

Deep-Fried Potato BallsDeep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes