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Hot Potato Salad

A salad of sliced potatoes, onions, bacon, flour, vinegar, and sea salt, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Hot Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the sliced potatoes. Add salt while boiling.

  2. Once cooled, slice the potatoes thinly.

  3. In a dish, layer the potatoes and finely chopped onions alternately until full.

Make the dressing

  1. Slice the bacon thinly and cut the bacon into small pieces.

  2. Fry the bacon in a pan until crisp and brown.

  3. Stir in the flour.

  4. Add the vinegar. Mix well.

Serve

  1. Pour the hot dressing over the layered potatoes.

  2. Serve hot.

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 + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 layered.
Bacon
Renders fat and browns in the pan, adding savoury flavour to the dressing.
Flour
Thickens the hot bacon fat and vinegar into a smooth, coating dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the fat and starch.
Onions
Add sharp, aromatic flavour that permeates the layered potatoes.

The step that matters

Pour the hot dressing over the layered potatoes. The dressing must be hot when poured so the potato slices absorb its flavour and moisture while still warm. Flour thickens the dressing only when it is heated, so a cooled dressing will not coat evenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, flour, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, flour, 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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