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Potato Salad

A salad of thinly sliced boiled potatoes, hard‑boiled eggs, onion, and a dressing of mustard, vinegar, sweet cream, and beaten egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Prepare

  1. Slice the cold boiled potatoes very thin.

  2. Chop the hard boiled eggs and onion finely.

  3. In a bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, onion, salt, and pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, mix the egg yolk with the mustard and vinegar.

  2. Gradually beat in the sweet cream until smooth.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg white gently.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and toss to combine.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad, absorbing dressing and giving a soft, tender texture.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies with the cream and mustard to make a smooth, rich dressing.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the dressing body and a mellow richness.
Egg white
Beaten to a froth and folded in, it lightens the dressing and adds airy volume.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharpness and helps emulsify the yolk into the dressing.
Strong vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts the richness of the cream and yolk.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg white gently. Beaten egg white holds air only while its foam is intact. Vigorous stirring deflates it, so the dressing turns dense and loses its lightness.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, onion, pepper, mustard, vinegar, cream):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Broccolifits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, onion, pepper, mustard, vinegar, cream. 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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