Why it works: Potato and blue cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 50 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells apple, fatty. The science ↓
The recipe
10 servingsIngredients
Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Place the whole small red potatoes in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes, until a knife slides easily into the centers.
Drain the potatoes and let them cool until warm enough to handle. Cut them into bite-sized pieces, leaving the skins on.
Put the peeled, cored and sliced Granny Smith apples in a large bowl with the potatoes so they are mixed together while still warm.
In a separate bowl, stir together the sour cream and mayonnaise until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the sliced celery, sliced green onions and crumbled blue cheese to the potato and apple mixture.
Pour the dressing over the salad and gently fold everything together until evenly coated. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.
Cover and refrigerate the salad for at least 1 hour so the flavors blend. Stir once more before serving cold.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Potato + blue cheesetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together50 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
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Potato + oniontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,019 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Celery + peppertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together16,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + celerytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,045 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Blue cheese + appletop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together40 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, blue cheese, onion, celery, cream, pepper):
- Grapeabout as good a flavor fit
- Lemonabout as good a flavor fit
- Avocadoabout as good a flavor fit
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, blue cheese, onion, celery, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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