Name: Claire's Creamy Potato Salad
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 800g small new potatoes; 3 spring onions , finely chopped; 1 tbsp small capers; 2 tbsp cornichons , finely chopped; 3 tbsp mayonnaise , or less to taste; 1 tbsp sour cream, or more to taste; 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional); salt and pepper; small handful dill leaves, roughly chopped; small handful parsley leaves, roughly chopped

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Dill + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together669 recipes

Shared aroma: p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (camphor, herbal).
Lemon + dilltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together976 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,550 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, capers, cream, pepper, dill, parsley):

Lemonthe original
Limefits about as well
Avocadofits less well
Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, capers, cream, pepper, dill, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Capers	1 tbsp (9g) drained	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Claire's Creamy Potato Salad