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
Cook the potatoes
Pare the potatoes and cover them with boiling water.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt.
Boil slowly until tender.
Drain the potatoes. Shake over the fire until dry.
When cool enough to handle, cut the potatoes into thin slices.
Make the dressing
Mix the white pepper, salt, and mustard together. Add to mayonnaise. Mix until smooth.
Stir in the minced onion and parsley.
Slowly add sweet cream until the mixture is the consistency of thin cream.
Assemble and chill
Layer the potatoes in a salad bowl, covering each layer with dressing until the bowl is filled. Pour the remaining dressing over the potatoes.
Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
Garnish with sprigs of parsley before serving.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,588 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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 after boiling.
- Mayonnaise
- Provides fat and creaminess that coat the potato slices and carry the seasonings.
- Sweet cream
- Thins the dressing so it coats the potatoes evenly and adds richness.
- Dry mustard
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that balances the rich dressing.
- Minced onion
- Adds sharp aromatic flavor to the dressing.
The step that matters
Shake the potatoes dry before dressing. Any surface water left on the drained potatoes dilutes the mayonnaise-based dressing, making it thin and watery and preventing it from clinging to the slices.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, mustard, onion, parsley, cream):
- Capersfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Celeryfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, mustard, onion, parsley, cream. 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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