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Potato Salad

A salad of mashed potatoes, onions, egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, and spices, garnished with egg slices and celery or lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 until tender, then peel and mash them smooth.

  2. Mince the onions and add them to the mashed potatoes.

Make the dressing and combine

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, vinegar, black pepper, celery seeds, coarse sea salt, prepared mustard, and melted butter.

  2. Combine the dressing with the potato mixture and mix well.

  3. Garnish with slices of egg and celery or lettuce.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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, providing starchy body that holds the dressing.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy texture that binds the dressing together.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
Melted butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rich mouthfeel.
Onions
Add sharp, aromatic flavour that cuts through the richness.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, vinegar, pepper, celery, mustard, butter. 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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