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Potato Salad

A chilled potato salad with boiled eggs, celery, onion, vinegar, butter, mustard, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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. Boil the potatoes and cut them into small blocks.

  2. Chop the hard boiled eggs and celery.

  3. Finely chop the onion if using.

  4. Wet the mustard with a little vinegar or use prepared mustard.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, boil the vinegar with butter, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and sugar.

  2. Beat the egg and mix it with the mustard.

  3. Slowly pour the boiling vinegar mixture over the egg while stirring continuously.

  4. Return the mixture to the stove and bring to a boil.

  5. Set the mixture aside to cool.

  6. Add the cream to the mixture.

Assemble and chill

  1. Pour the mixture over the potatoes.

  2. Chill the salad in the refrigerator until very cold before serving.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and hold the dressing in their cut blocks.
Eggs
Add richness and body, and the cooked yolk thickens the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sugar and fat.
Butter
Adds fat and smoothness to the cooked dressing.
Cream
Adds moisture and a smooth, creamy texture to the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar over the beaten egg. If the hot liquid is added too quickly or without constant stirring, the egg can scramble into lumps instead of blending smoothly. Pouring slowly while stirring gently warms the egg so it thickens the dressing evenly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, celery, vinegar, butter, pepper, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, celery, vinegar, butter, pepper, sugar. 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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