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Potato Salad.— Very Nice

A chilled salad of mashed potatoes, cabbage, pickles, eggs, and a vinegar‑butter dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 722 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Salad.— Very Nice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Rub the mashed potatoes through a colander.

Combine and dress

  1. In a bowl, mix the potatoes, cabbage, pickles, and powdered egg yolks.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the beaten raw egg, celery seed, sugar, melted butter, flour, and vinegar.

  3. Boil the vinegar mixture and pour it over the salad mixture.

  4. Stir until thickened, then pour it hot over the salad.

Chill and serve

  1. Toss the salad with a silver fork and refrigerate until very cold before serving.

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. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and give it a soft, starchy body.
Raw egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks, binding it into a creamy coating.
Powdered egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the salad base.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the butter and egg.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the dressing.
Flour
Thickens the dressing along with the egg so it clings to the salad.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing until thickened. The raw egg and flour must be heated gently while stirring so the dressing thickens smoothly. If it is left to boil unattended or stirred too little, the egg can curdle into lumps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cabbage, cucumber, egg, sugar, butter, vinegar):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cabbage, cucumber, egg, sugar, butter, vinegar. 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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