Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 12 potatoes; 2 hard boiled eggs; 1 onion, finely chopped; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 tablespoon lard; ½ cup vinegar

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the potatoes until fully cooked, then peel and slice them.
Chop the hard boiled eggs and onion finely.
In a pan, heat the lard until melted.

Assemble and serve

Combine the potatoes, eggs, and onion in a bowl.
Season with salt and pepper, then pour the melted lard and vinegar over the mixture.
Mix well and serve.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 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 and hold their shape when sliced and tossed.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
Lard: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the salad when melted over it.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the fat.