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Salad

Potato Salad

A cold salad of diced potatoes, celery, onion, and a creamy egg-based dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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

Prepare

  1. Cut cold boiled potatoes into dice.

  2. Add sliced celery, salt, pepper, and finely chopped onion.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg, then mix in ground mustard and salt.

  2. Slowly add melted butter while beating constantly.

  3. Gradually mix in vinegar, sweet cream or milk, and cayenne.

  4. Heat the mixture on the stove, stirring well, but do not let it boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the salad cold.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing.
Egg
Yolk emulsifies the butter and vinegar, thickening the dressing into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth, silky texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the butter.
Sweet cream or milk
Adds moisture and mellows the dressing into a looser, creamier consistency.

The step that matters

Heat the dressing without boiling. Heating gently thickens the egg and dressing smoothly; boiling can curdle the egg, leaving a grainy, separated sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, celery, pepper, egg, mustard, butter, vinegar):

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

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