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Salad

Potato Salad No. 1

A cold salad of diced potatoes, eggs, onion, and a dressing of vinegar, sour cream, butter, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Combine vinegar, sour cream, butter, and salt in a pan over low heat.

  2. Beat the raw egg, then mix the beaten egg with mustard and a little cold water.

  3. Stir the mixture into the pan and cook briefly.

  4. Strain the mixture and add celery seed.

Assemble and serve

  1. Layer the diced potatoes, eggs, and chopped onion in a salad dish, alternating until all ingredients are used.

  2. If desired, substitute fresh celery for celery seed, sprinkling it between layers.

  3. Pour the dressing over the layered salad.

  4. If the vinegar is too sour, dilute it with a little water.

  5. For best flavor, prepare the salad a day in advance.

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

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

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
The raw egg is cooked into the dressing, thickening it and giving it body.
Sour cream
Adds richness and a creamy body that carries the tangy dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad, absorbing dressing and holding its shape as layers.
Butter
Adds fat and smoothness to the warm dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg into the dressing. Heating the beaten egg gently while stirring cooks it into the dressing and thickens it. If the heat is too high or it is not stirred, the egg can scramble and leave lumps, so the dressing turns grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, onion, cream, vinegar, butter, mustard. 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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