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Salad

Plain Potato Salad

A salad of cubed boiled potatoes, onions, parsley, and dressing, topped with sliced hard-boiled eggs and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Plain Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold boiled potatoes into small cubes.

  2. Finely chop the raw onions and cream them in oil.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, onions, minced parsley, and enough dressing to taste.

  2. Transfer to a large platter.

  3. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs sliced thinly and crisp lettuce leaves.

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. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 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 hold the dressing between their cut pieces.
Onions
Add sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
French or mayonnaise dressing
Adds moisture and richness, coating the potatoes and onions.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add creamy texture and mild flavour as a garnish.

The step that matters

Creaming the chopped onions in oil. Raw onion has harsh, sulphurous bite. Soaking it in oil mellows that sharpness, so the onion tastes milder in the finished salad. Cream it gently and avoid leaving it dry or overly strong.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, parsley, egg, lettuce):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, parsley, egg, lettuce. 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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