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Spinach

A mixed vegetable salad with spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, beef, cheese, asparagus, rhubarb, turnips, string beans, cabbage, egg yolks, peas, onions, oatmeal, corn, bread, raspberries, potatoes, and peanuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 427 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

  1. Combine cooked spinach, fresh lettuce, and cauliflower in a large bowl.

  2. Add lean beef and cottage cheese to the bowl and mix well.

  3. Cook asparagus until tender in a separate pot.

  4. Add the cooked asparagus to the mixture.

Add the vegetables

  1. Combine rhubarb, turnips, string beans, and cabbage in another bowl.

  2. Mix in egg yolks and cooked peas.

  3. Add the mixture to the main bowl.

  4. Chop onions.

  5. Add the chopped onions to the mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve with oatmeal, corn, graham bread, raspberries, potatoes, and peanuts on the side.

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. Spinach + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cauliflower + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Spinach + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness to the dressing-like blend.
Cottage cheese
Adds moisture and creamy texture to the salad.
Lean beef
Adds protein and a meaty bite to the salad.
Asparagus
Adds tender texture once cooked until soft.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, beef, cottage cheese, asparagus, turnip):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, beef, cottage cheese, asparagus, turnip. 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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