Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups boiled potatoes; ½ teaspoon parsley; ⅛ teaspoon salt; 1 piece of onion; French dressing; Mayonnaise or boiled dressing

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

Cut the potatoes into thin slices or dice.
Rub the inside of the salad bowl with a piece of onion.
Add salt to the potatoes.
Chop celery, celery leaves, or parsley finely and add to the potatoes.

Dress and serve

Marinate with French dressing.
Mix in mayonnaise or boiled dressing if desired.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Boiled potatoes: Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing's flavour.
French dressing: Adds acidity and seasoning as the potatoes marinate.
Mayonnaise or boiled dressing: Adds fat and creaminess, giving the salad a richer texture.