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Potato Salad

A potato salad with olive oil, tarragon vinegar, onion, sardines, pickled beets, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the potatoes until just done, then drain and dry them.

  2. In a bowl, combine salt and white pepper.

  3. Gradually add olive oil, then mix in tarragon vinegar and sliced onion.

Make and chill the salad

  1. Cut the hot potatoes into the mixture, tossing gently to avoid breaking them.

  2. Set the bowl aside until the mixture is very cold.

Serve

  1. Serve on a dish garnished with parsley, topped with sardines, and sprinkle with chopped parsley and pickled beets.

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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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, holding their shape when dressed and chilled.
Olive oil
Adds richness and carries flavour through the dressing.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Onion
Adds sharp, aromatic flavour that mellows as the salad chills.

The step that matters

Cutting the hot potatoes into the dressing. Hot potatoes absorb the oil and vinegar readily, so they take on the dressing's flavour. Tossing gently keeps the slices intact rather than breaking them into a mash.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, olive, tarragon, vinegar, onion, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, olive, tarragon, vinegar, onion, parsley. 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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