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Salad

Carrot Salad

A salad of boiled young carrots mixed with herbs and French dressing, served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Carrot Salad

Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Carrot Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil very young carrots in a little water until tender.

  2. Cut the carrots into narrow strips lengthwise.

Dress and serve

  1. Sprinkle with minced chervil, tarragon, cress, or any desired herb.

  2. Cover with French dressing.

  3. Serve 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + cherviltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together355 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Carrot + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Very young carrots
Provide the main body of the salad, becoming tender when boiled and sliced into strips.
French dressing
Adds acidity and fat that moisten the carrots and carry the flavour of the herbs.
Minced chervil
Adds a fresh, aromatic herbal flavour to the salad.
Minced tarragon
Adds a sharp, aromatic herbal flavour that complements the carrots.
Minced cress
Adds a peppery, fresh aroma and a light green note.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chervil, tarragon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chervil, 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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