Name: Potato Salad
Ingredients: 6 potatoes, boiled, peeled, and diced; 2 onions, chopped; 2 cucumber pickles, chopped; 1 stalk celery, chopped; salt, to taste; pepper, to taste; cooked salad dressing; cold boiled eggs, for garnish; celery leaves, for garnish

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

In a large bowl, combine the diced potatoes, chopped onions, chopped pickles, and chopped celery. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix well with cooked salad dressing.
Garnish with cold boiled eggs and celery leaves before serving.

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).
Celery + peppertop 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).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,745 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 provide its soft, starchy body.
Cooked salad dressing: Adds moisture and richness that coats the potatoes and binds the salad together.
Onions: Add sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
Cucumber pickles: Add acidity and a tangy crunch that brightens the salad.

Swap the cucumber

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

Carrotfits better
Chivefits better
Capsicumfits better
Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, celery, pepper, egg. 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.