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Potato Salad

A chilled salad of boiled potatoes, cabbage, celery, and egg yolks dressed with a vinegar and butter 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 the vegetables

  1. Rub the boiled potatoes through a colander, then let the potatoes cool.

  2. Shred the cabbage and celery finely with a sharp knife.

  3. Rub the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs to a powder.

  4. Toss the powdered yolks with the potatoes, cabbage, and celery using a silver fork.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the two egg yolks, melted butter, sugar, corn-starch, salt, mustard, cayenne, and vinegar until smooth.

  2. Heat the vinegar mixture.

  3. Pour the heated mixture over the potato mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens, about two minutes.

  4. Whip the mixture into the potato salad.

Chill

  1. Set the salad 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

Boiled potatoes
Mealy potatoes form the bulk of the salad and break down softly for a creamy body.
Egg yolks
Egg yolks thicken the dressing as they heat and add richness to the salad.
Melted butter
Butter adds fat, giving the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Vinegar adds acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Corn-starch
Corn-starch thickens the heated dressing so it clings to the potatoes.
White cabbage
Shredded cabbage adds crisp texture and a mild bite to the salad.

The step that matters

Pour the heated dressing and stir constantly. Egg yolks and corn-starch thicken as they heat. Stirring constantly keeps the mixture smooth and prevents the yolks from curdling in lumps while it thickens.

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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