Why it works: Onion and potato 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
Make the dressing
In a bowl, combine egg yolks, salt, pepper, mustard, grated onion, vinegar, and butter.
Mix to a smooth paste and cook slowly until thickened.
Let the mixture cool, then add an equal amount of sweet cream and mix well.
Dress the potatoes
Pour the dressing over the cold boiled potatoes and stir to combine.
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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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + potatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the dressing as they set during slow cooking, giving it a creamy body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and smoothness to the cooked dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances its richness.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness, loosening the cooled dressing for coating the potatoes.
- Potatoes
- Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing.
The step that matters
Cook the dressing slowly until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the heat is too high, they scramble into lumps instead of forming a smooth, even custard-like dressing.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, onion, vinegar, butter, cream, potato):
- Chivefits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Spinachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, onion, vinegar, butter, cream, potato. 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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