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Salad

A Pretty Christmas Salad

A salad of cream cheese, celery, walnuts, lettuce, and French dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

A Pretty Christmas Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese balls

  1. Mash a ten-cent cream cheese with a fork until smooth.

  2. Mix the cream cheese with one-half cupful finely chopped celery and salt to season, and form into small balls.

  3. Place half English walnut meat on each side of every ball.

Serve

  1. Arrange the balls on lettuce leaves in the shape of a star.

  2. Pour French dressing over all and sprinkle with paprika.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

689Calories
21 gProtein
6 gFat
139 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 14 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Broccoli1 cup chopped (156g)55
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Turmeric + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turmeric + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,913 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese (in the method)
Forms the soft, smooth base that holds the balls together.
Celery
Adds a crisp texture and fresh flavor to the cheese mixture.
English walnut meat
Adds a crunchy texture and nutty flavor against the soft cheese.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, vinegar, sugar, turmeric, flour, walnut, meat):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, vinegar, sugar, turmeric, flour, walnut, meat. 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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