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Turkey Salad

A salad of turkey, celery, and a mustard vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Turkey Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine turkey and celery in a bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks, sugar, salt, pepper, and mustard into a paste.

  2. Stir in oil and vinegar until well combined.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour dressing over turkey and celery, and toss well with a fork.

  2. Garnish with egg white rings.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Meat + turkeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and vinegar, giving the dressing a smooth, creamy body.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps stabilise the emulsified dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard for a balanced flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in oil and vinegar until well combined. Egg yolk paste must be fully blended with the oil and vinegar so the dressing forms a stable emulsion instead of separating. Adding the liquids slowly while mixing helps the emulsion hold together.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, turkey, egg, sugar, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, turkey, egg, sugar, pepper, mustard, 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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