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Salad

Potato Salad

A chilled or room-temperature salad of boiled potatoes, onion, celery, and a creamy dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes in their jackets until tender, then peel and chop them.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream, cornstarch, egg, butter, vinegar, dry mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper. Mix well until smooth.

Assemble and serve

  1. Add the chopped potatoes, onion, and celery to the dressing and stir to combine.

  2. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 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 their shape when tossed with the dressing.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the dressing.
Cornstarch
Thickens the dressing so it clings to the potatoes instead of running off.
Egg
Helps thicken and enrich the dressing as it cooks with the other liquids.
Butter
Contributes fat for flavor and a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness and sweetness.

The step that matters

Thickening the dressing. Cornstarch and egg thicken only when heated and stirred, so the dressing must be cooked to the proper consistency and mixed until smooth; otherwise it stays thin and can turn lumpy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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