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Salad

Potato Salad

A salad of sliced boiled potatoes, onion, eggs, mustard, and dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a frying kettle, mix the beaten eggs, black pepper, salt, mustard, red pepper, melted butter, sweet oil, cream, and vinegar.

  2. Stir constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens.

Assemble

  1. Combine the sliced potatoes and chopped onion in a bowl.

  2. Pour the dressing over the potato and onion mixture and mix well.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set with gentle heat, giving it body and richness.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad, absorbing dressing and giving a soft, hearty texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness.
Sweet oil
Contributes fat that makes the dressing smooth and coats the potatoes.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set when heated, so too much heat or no stirring can scramble the eggs into lumps. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the dressing smooth and thick.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

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

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