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Potato Salad

A salad of sliced potatoes and onions dressed with a mustard‑cider vinaigrette and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 the salad

  1. Combine sliced potatoes and onions in a large bowl.

  2. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. Whisk egg yolks, mustard, cayenne pepper, sugar, and vinegar together in a saucepan.

  2. Add butter to the saucepan and heat until it boils.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before stirring in thick sweet cream.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour dressing over potatoes and onions and mix well.

  2. Add sliced cucumbers if desired.

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

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

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

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

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing into a smooth, creamy emulsion as they set with gentle heat.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that cuts through the richness and brightens the salad.
Thick sweet cream
Adds body and a mellow, creamy texture to the finished dressing.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing's flavor and moisture.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the mixture gets too hot it can scramble and turn grainy. Heat gently and stir constantly, then let it cool slightly before adding the cream so the dressing stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, egg, mustard, sugar, cider, 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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