Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 6 potatoes, diced; 3 small onions, chopped; 1 green pepper, chopped; parsley, chopped; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a salad bowl, combine the diced potatoes, chopped onions, green pepper, and parsley.
In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and white pepper.

Assemble and chill

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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 + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,649 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 provide its starchy, hearty texture.
Olive oil: Carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth, coating richness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat.
Onions: Add sharp, aromatic flavour that mellows as the salad chills.

Swap the white pepper

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

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Dillfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper, parsley, olive, 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.