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Potato Salad

A cold salad of boiled potatoes, onions, celery, hard‑boiled eggs, and a dressing of vinegar, mustard, pepper, salt, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. Cut the cold boiled potatoes into small square bits.

  2. Chop the onions and celery, then mix them with the potatoes.

  3. Boil the eggs until very hard, then mix the yolks, rubbed fine, with the potatoes and vegetables, adding some of the egg whites.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, make a dressing by mixing vinegar, mustard, pepper, salt, and the raw egg yolk with the butter or salad oil.

  2. Heat the dressing and pour it over the potato mixture.

Chill and serve

  1. Place the salad in a cool place until ready to 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.

  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. Celery + peppertop 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 and give it a soft, starchy body.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add creamy richness and body through the mashed yolks.
Raw egg yolk
Acts as an emulsifier that helps bind the dressing into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the fats.
Butter or salad oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.
Mustard
Contributes sharp flavor and helps stabilize the emulsified dressing.

The step that matters

Heat the dressing and pour it over the potato mixture. Warm dressing soaks into warm, freshly cut potatoes more readily than cold dressing, so flavor distributes evenly. The raw egg yolk in the dressing can scramble if overheated, so heat it gently and keep it moving.

Swap the onion

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

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

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