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Potato Salad

A dressing of milk, vinegar, flour, mustard, sugar, salt, spices, and butter coats diced potatoes and celery, garnished with eggs, celery, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate vessel, combine flour, mustard, brown sugar, salt, cayenne, and black pepper.

  3. Add melted butter and mix well.

  4. Beat the eggs until light, then add the dry mixture.

  5. Pour in the scalded milk and vinegar, stirring continuously.

  6. Cook until the mixture thickens to the consistency of molasses.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Use half of the dressing to coat equal parts of diced potatoes and chopped celery.

  2. Garnish with sliced hard-boiled eggs, celery, and capers.

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs add richness and help thicken the dressing as it cooks.
Flour
Starch thickens the dressing so it coats the potatoes instead of running off.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the butter and eggs.
Melted butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rich mouthfeel in the dressing.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the dressing, which thickens as it cooks.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Egg and flour thickening only works at a steady heat with constant stirring. Undercooked dressing stays thin and runny, while overheating can scramble the eggs and cause lumps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, vinegar, flour, mustard, sugar, pepper, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, vinegar, flour, mustard, sugar, pepper, butter. 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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