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Salad

Potato Salad

A salad of boiled potatoes, bacon, onion, mayonnaise, and vinegar, seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes and bacon

  1. Boil the potatoes in their skins.

  2. Peel and slice the potatoes while hot.

  3. Cut the bacon into small dice.

  4. Fry the bacon until nicely browned.

  5. Drain the bacon well from fat.

Make the salad

  1. Combine the sliced potatoes, bacon, and onion in a bowl.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  3. Stir in the mayonnaise and vinegar.

  4. Mix carefully to avoid breaking the potatoes.

Serve

  1. Serve in a salad bowl, sprinkled with parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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 bulk of the salad, with a tender body that holds its slices when mixed gently.
Bacon
Adds savory, browned flavor and fat that carries flavor through the salad.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess that coats the potatoes and binds the salad together.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness of the bacon and mayonnaise.
Onion
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that contrasts with the potatoes and bacon.

The step that matters

Mix carefully to avoid breaking the potatoes.. Potato slices are fragile once cooked and cut, and rough stirring breaks them into mush. Gentle folding keeps the slices intact and gives the salad an appealing texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, parsley, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, parsley, vinegar, pepper. 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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