Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 1 head of lettuce; 8 cold boiled potatoes; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 2 tablespoons salad oil; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 small onion (optional); A little celery

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

Wash the lettuce and shake it dry in a clean cloth.
Tear the lettuce into pieces with your hands.
Cut the potatoes into slices and mix them with the lettuce.
Peel and chop the onion and celery.

Dress and serve

Sprinkle the onion, celery, salt, pepper, vinegar, and oil over the salad.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lettuce + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together322 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Provide the bulk and starchy body of the salad.
Lettuce: Adds cool, crisp leaves that give the salad its fresh texture.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Oil: Carries flavour and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Onion: Adds sharp aroma and pungency that mellows in the dressing.
Celery: Adds crunch and a fresh, grassy note.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, potato, vinegar, pepper, celery):

Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Beetrootfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, potato, vinegar, pepper, celery. 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.