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Potato Salad

A salad of sliced potatoes mixed with a thickened egg yolk, vinegar, butter, and water, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine egg yolks, vinegar, butter, and water.

  2. Stir together and cook until thick.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix the thickened mixture with sliced potatoes and sliced onion.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.

  3. Garnish with slices of hard boiled eggs.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 as they cook, giving it a creamy, smooth body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the dressing rich and smooth.
Sliced potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing.
Sliced onion
Adds sharp, aromatic flavor to the salad.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing until thick. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Cook gently and stir constantly so the dressing thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, butter, potato, pepper. 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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