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Salad

Mixed Salad

A salad of cabbage, endive, celery, beetroot, seasoned with salt, pepper, dressing and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and endive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the greens

  1. Trim the cabbage lettuces and endive.

  2. Rinse them in cold water and drain thoroughly.

  3. Break the leaves into small pieces and place them in a salad bowl.

Assemble and dress

  1. Arrange finely shredded celery and slices of cooked beetroot on top.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and salad dressing mixed with a small quantity of cream.

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 + endivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  3. Endive + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + beetroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage lettuces
Form the crisp, leafy base of the salad.
Endive
Adds a slightly bitter leaf that contrasts with the sweeter beetroot.
Celery
Contributes crunch and a fresh, mild flavour.
Cooked beetroot
Adds sweetness, colour and a soft, earthy texture.
Salad dressing
Provides moisture and acidity that coats the leaves and vegetables.
Cream
Mellows the dressing and adds richness and a smoother coating.

The step that matters

Drain the greens thoroughly after rinsing. Leftover water dilutes the dressing and makes it slide off the leaves, so the salad turns watery and bland. Dry leaves hold the dressing evenly.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, endive, celery, beetroot, pepper, cream):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, endive, celery, beetroot, pepper, cream. 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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