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Salad

Potato Salad

A salad of boiled potatoes, celery, egg yolks, mustard, and dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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. Chop the boiled potatoes and celery.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the egg yolks, mustard, salt, and sugar thoroughly.

  2. Heat the vinegar and water, then add to the mixture.

  3. Cook over hot water until it thickens.

  4. Beat in the olive oil or butter, then reduce with cream.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the dressing and thicken it as they cook gently over hot water.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing's flavour.
Olive oil or butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smooth, silky body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the fat.
Cream
Thins the thickened dressing and adds a mellow, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Cook over hot water until it thickens. Egg yolks set between about 60 and 80°C, so heating them gently over simmering water thickens the dressing smoothly. Higher heat or direct contact can scramble them into lumps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, mustard, sugar, vinegar, olive, cream):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, mustard, sugar, vinegar, olive, cream. 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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