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Irish Potato Salad

A potato salad made with boiled mashed potatoes, butter, cayenne pepper, mustard, celery seed, vinegar, eggs, celery, onion, and sweet pickle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Irish Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the dressing

  1. Combine mashed potatoes, butter, cayenne pepper, salt, mustard, celery seed, and vinegar in a double boiler.

  2. Cook the mixture until it thickens.

Combine

  1. Pour the thickened mixture into the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the hard-boiled eggs, cut finely, along with the cut celery, chopped onion, and sweet pickle with its juice.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk and body of the salad, holding the other ingredients together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth, mellow mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the butter and eggs.
Eggs
Add body and richness to the salad as chopped hard-boiled pieces.
Sweet pickle
Adds sweetness and acidity, along with its juice for extra tang.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until it thickens. Gentle heat in a double boiler keeps the mixture from scorching while the potato starch swells and thickens it. Stirring helps prevent lumps and an uneven texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, egg, mustard, celery, 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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