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Salad

Salad-dressing with Potato

A dressing made from boiled potato, raw egg yolk, mustard, salt, olive oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,458 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Salad-dressing with Potato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Peel and boil the potato until tender.

  2. Mash the potato until smooth and free of lumps.

Make the dressing

  1. Stir in the raw egg yolk until well combined.

  2. Add the mustard and salt, mixing thoroughly.

  3. Gradually add the olive oil and vinegar, a drop at a time, while stirring constantly to achieve a smooth dressing.

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 + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potato
Thickens the dressing and gives it a creamy body once mashed smooth.
Egg yolk
Lecithin in the yolk emulsifies the oil and vinegar so they stay blended.
Olive oil
Provides fat that makes the dressing rich and gives it a smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and vinegar together and add sharpness.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and vinegar. Oil must be added slowly while stirring, so the yolk can disperse it into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving the dressing oily and separated.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, olive, 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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