Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 3 large cold boiled potatoes; 1 small onion, minced; 1 hard boiled egg, sliced; ½ cup hot vinegar; celery for garnish

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

Pare and slice the potatoes.
Mince the onion.
Slice the hard-boiled egg.

Assemble and serve

In a salad bowl, layer the potatoes and eggs alternately, sprinkling each layer with salt and adding onion.
Pour ½ cup of hot vinegar over the salad and garnish with celery.
Alternatively, use lettuce dressing instead of hot vinegar.

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 + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 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 vinegar's flavour and moisture.
Hot vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the salad its sharp, tangy flavour.
Egg: Adds richness and soft texture between the potato layers.
Onion: Contributes sharp, aromatic flavour that mellows in the dressing.