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Salad

Sidney Smith’s Winter Salad

A chilled potato salad with mustard, olive oil, vinegar, egg yolks, onion, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sidney Smith’s Winter Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Pass the potatoes through a kitchen sieve.

  2. Add mustard, salt, and mix well.

  3. Stir in olive oil and vinegar.

Finish the salad

  1. Incorporate the pounded egg yolks and finely chopped onion.

  2. Top with anchovy sauce and mix thoroughly.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 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 body of the salad, becoming smooth and creamy when pressed through a sieve.
Olive oil
Adds richness and fat, helping carry flavour and giving a smooth texture.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and mustard, adding richness and body to the dressing.
Mustard
Its emulsifiers help bind the oil and vinegar and add sharp flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dish and balances the richness of oil and yolks.

The step that matters

Incorporate the pounded egg yolks and finely chopped onion. Yolks are the emulsifier that holds the oil and vinegar together. If the oil is added too quickly or the yolks are not smoothly blended, the dressing can split and look greasy instead of creamy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, olive, vinegar, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce. 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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