Name: Sidney Smith's Winter Salad
Ingredients: 2 large potatoes, cooked and passed through a sieve; 1 teaspoon mustard; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 2 hard-boiled eggs, pounded; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon anchovy sauce

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sidney Smith's Winter Salad

Ingredients

2 large potatoes, cooked and passed through a sieve
1 teaspoon mustard
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 hard-boiled eggs, pounded
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon anchovy sauce

Directions

Pass the cooked potatoes through a sieve into a bowl.
Add the mustard, coarse sea salt, olive oil, and vinegar; mix well.
Stir in the pounded eggs and chopped onion.
Top with anchovy sauce and mix gently.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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; sieving breaks them down into a smooth, tender texture.
Olive oil: Adds fat and richness, coating the potatoes and carrying flavour.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the salad and balances the richness of the oil.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add body and creaminess when pounded into the potato mixture.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that gives the salad its character.

The step that matters

Pass the cooked potatoes through a sieve. Potatoes must be hot or freshly cooked and pressed while still tender, so the sieve yields a smooth, lump-free base. Cold, overworked potatoes turn gluey or stay lumpy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce):

Horseradishfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce. 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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Sidney Smith's Winter Salad