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Salad

German Herring Salad

A salad of salted herrings, roast veal, boiled potatoes, pickled cucumbers, beets, celery, apple, egg, onion, seasoned with salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,023 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

German Herring Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut all ingredients into small narrow strips.

Mix and season

  1. Mix the herring, meat, potatoes, cucumbers, beets, celery, apple, hard boiled egg, and onion in a bowl.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar to taste.

Rest and serve

  1. Let the salad stand for a day before serving.

  2. Optionally, pour mayonnaise over the salad when serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt herrings
Provides the salty, savoury fish flavour that anchors the whole salad.
Boiled potatoes
Adds bulk and absorbs the vinegar dressing, keeping the salad moist.
Apple
Adds crisp sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and pickles.
Pickled cucumbers
Add acidity and crunch that brighten the rich meat and fish.
Hard boiled egg
Adds richness and a soft texture that mellows the sharp flavours.
Grated onion
Contributes a sharp aroma that softens as the salad stands.

The step that matters

Let the salad stand for a day. Resting lets the salt and vinegar slowly penetrate the potatoes, meat and herring, so the flavours blend evenly. Serving it straight away tastes sharper and less cohesive.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, potato, cucumber, celery, egg, onion, pepper):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Limebetter flavor fit
  3. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, potato, cucumber, celery, egg, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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