Why it works: Mustard and celery 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
Hard boil the eggs, then remove the yolks and mash them into a pulp.
Add the raw eggs, vinegar, flour, oil, salt, pepper, mustard, and melted butter to the yolk and beat well.
Slice the cold boiled potatoes thinly and pour the mixture over them.
Add chopped celery if desired.
For the whipped cream, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar for each pint after whipping and mix thoroughly with the potatoes.
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.
-
Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Mustard + potatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the celery
The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, flour, pepper, mustard, butter, potato):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Dillfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, flour, pepper, mustard, butter, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More potato salad recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes
Potato Rolls78 recipes
Potato Chips53 recipes