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Salad

Potato Salad

A chilled salad of sliced boiled potatoes mixed with a butter‑cream dressing, optionally including cold fish, and garnished with parsley and cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. In a large bowl, combine the sliced boiled potatoes and bits of cold boiled fish if desired.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter or olive oil, cream, salt, white pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

Make the dressing

  1. Cook the dressing mixture over low heat until thoroughly combined, then add the beaten eggs and stir for 2-3 minutes.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the potatoes and fish mixture while still warm.

  2. Garnish with chopped parsley and arrange sliced cucumbers or green pickled tomatoes around the edge.

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

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

  2. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 dressing as they stay warm.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook gently, giving it a creamy body.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the dressing.
Butter or olive oil
Adds fat and a rounded, savory mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten eggs to the dressing. Eggs thicken when heated, but if the dressing is too hot or cooked too fast the egg proteins can scramble into lumps. Keep the heat low and stir constantly so the dressing turns smooth and creamy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, cream, mustard, vinegar, egg, parsley. 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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