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Salad

Potato Salad No. 1

A chilled salad of diced potatoes, onion, radishes, sweet pepper, cucumber, mayonnaise, cream, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Radish and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 212 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Potato Salad No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender.

  2. Cool the boiled potatoes and dice them.

  3. Chop the onion and the green pepper.

  4. Slice the radishes and the cucumber thin.

Make and serve the salad

  1. Mix all ingredients together with the mayonnaise, sweet or sour cream, salt, and pepper.

  2. If using all mayonnaise and no cream, use about 1⅔ cups of mayonnaise.

  3. Place the salad in a dish and chill.

  4. Sprinkle paprika or finely minced parsley on top for garnish.

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. Radish + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 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 soft, tender texture once boiled.
Mayonnaise
Provides fat and creaminess that binds the salad and gives it richness.
Sweet or sour cream
Adds extra creaminess and a mild tang to the dressing.
Radishes
Add a crisp texture and a sharp, peppery bite.
Cucumber
Adds moisture and a cool, crisp crunch.

The step that matters

Cool the boiled potatoes before dicing and mixing. Warm potatoes break apart when cut and absorb dressing unevenly, while cooled, firm potatoes hold their shape and keep the salad creamy rather than mushy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, radish, pepper, cucumber, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, radish, pepper, cucumber, 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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