Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 2 quarts cold boiled potatoes, chopped; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped; 2 tablespoons grated onion; ½ cup vinegar; ¼ cup oil or melted butter

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

Chop the cold boiled potatoes.
In a bowl, mix the salt, pepper, parsley, grated onion, vinegar, and oil or melted butter.

Dress and rest

Pour the mixture over the potatoes.
Let it stand for 30 minutes before serving.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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 soak up the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and sharpens the dressing.
Oil or melted butter: Adds fat that carries flavor and coats the potatoes.
Grated onion: Adds a sharp, savory aroma and bite.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Chivefits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, parsley, vinegar, butter. 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.