Why it works: Potato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 655 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chill the leftover vegetables on ice.
Cover the chilled vegetables with mayonnaise.
Serve
Serve immediately.
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 + beanstop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together655 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together949 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Potato + peastop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,016 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
- Cold cooked potatoes
- Provide the bulk and starchy body of the salad.
- Cold cooked peas
- Add sweetness and a tender, soft texture.
- Cold cooked string beans
- Contribute crisp-tender texture and mild vegetable flavor.
- Cold cooked shell beans
- Add creamy texture and bulk to the mixture.
- Cold cooked beets
- Add earthy sweetness and a vivid color.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds fat and creaminess that coats the vegetables and binds them together.
The step that matters
Chill the vegetables on ice before dressing. Cold vegetables hold their shape and firmness, while warm ones soften and absorb mayonnaise unevenly. Chilling first keeps the salad crisp and the dressing from turning greasy or loose.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, beans):
- Chickpeafits better
- Lima beansfits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, beans. 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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