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Salad

Plum's Pride

A salad of boiled potatoes, tomatoes, beetroot, lettuce, and watercress dressed with vinegar, mustard, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 678 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Plum's Pride

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the hot potatoes through a sieve.

  2. Sieve the cooked tomatoes and about 2 inches of beetroot.

  3. Add the beaten yolk of a raw egg, tarragon, and vinegar to the mixture.

  4. Mix all ingredients well, adjusting oil and vinegar to taste.

  5. Add mustard or chopped chili if desired.

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. Lettuce + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Watercress + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lettuce + watercresstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Watercress + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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, giving body when pressed through a sieve while hot.
Egg yolk (in the method)
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, binding the mixture into a smooth dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the oil.
Oil or cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the salad a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Mix all ingredients well, adjusting oil and vinegar to taste.. The egg yolk and oil form an emulsion only when they are thoroughly combined. Adding oil and vinegar gradually and mixing well keeps the dressing smooth rather than separated.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, lettuce, watercress, beetroot, onion, shallot, tarragon):

  1. Endivefits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, lettuce, watercress, beetroot, onion, shallot, tarragon. 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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