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Salad

Potato Salad

A chilled salad of boiled potatoes, cabbage, celery, and egg yolks dressed with a vinegar-based sauce.

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. Rub the boiled potatoes through a colander and let them cool.

  2. Shred the cabbage and celery finely without bruising.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the beaten egg yolks, melted butter, sugar, corn-starch, salt, mustard, cayenne, and vinegar.

  2. Heat the vinegar mixture and pour it over the other ingredients, stirring constantly until thickened, about 2 minutes.

Combine and chill

  1. In a bowl, toss the potatoes, cabbage, celery, and powdered egg yolks together with a silver fork.

  2. Whip the mixture into the potato salad and set aside until very 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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad, with a mealy texture that holds the dressing.
Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set with heat, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Corn-starch
Stabilises the dressing so it thickens without breaking when heated.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, light bite to the salad.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing while stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken when heated but scramble if they get too hot or sit still. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly, so the dressing thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, celery, egg, butter, sugar, corn, mustard. 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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