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
Cook the potatoes
Pare the potatoes and cover them with boiling water; add 1 teaspoon of salt.
Boil slowly until tender, then drain and shake over the fire until dry.
When cool enough to handle, cut the potatoes into thin slices.
Make the dressing
Mix the white pepper, salt, and mustard together; add to the cooked mayonnaise and mix until smooth.
Add the minced onion and parsley; slowly add sweet cream until the dressing is the consistency of thin cream.
Assemble and chill
Layer the potatoes in a salad bowl, covering each layer with dressing until the bowl is filled.
Pour the remaining dressing over the potatoes and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
Garnish with parsley before serving.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 body of the salad, absorbing the dressing as they are layered.
- Cooked mayonnaise
- Provides fat and creamy moisture that coats the potato slices and binds the salad.
- Sweet cream
- Thins the dressing to a pourable consistency so it coats the potatoes evenly.
- Dry mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts the richness of the mayonnaise.
The step that matters
Shake the potatoes dry after draining. Residual surface water dilutes the mayonnaise dressing and makes the salad watery, so the potatoes should be dried well before slicing and dressing.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, mustard, pepper, onion, parsley, cream):
- Celeryfits better
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, mustard, pepper, onion, parsley, cream. 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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