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Salad

Marie Paidar

A collection of tomato salads served with French dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 307 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Marie Paidar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash all vegetables.

  2. Scald the tomatoes so skins can be removed.

  3. Cut a slice from the top of each tomato and remove the seeds with a small spoon.

  4. Peel the cucumbers and dice them.

  5. Dice the celery.

  6. Cut lettuce into shreds.

Make the filling

  1. Season the cucumber and celery mixture highly and mix with one-half of the dressing.

  2. Fill the tomato cups with the mixture.

  3. Spoon another portion of dressing on top.

  4. Sprinkle finely chopped parsley over the tops.

Assemble and serve

  1. Make a nest of shredded lettuce.

  2. Fill the nest with sliced cucumber, tomatoes, watercress, green onions, and radishes.

  3. Pour fancy French dressing over the salad.

  4. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

  5. Slice three tomatoes.

  6. Slice three hard boiled eggs.

  7. Arrange sliced tomatoes and eggs on watercress or lettuce leaves.

  8. Serve with French dressing.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

226Calories
11 gProtein
11 gFat
22 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Lettuce1 cup shredded (36g)5
Watercress1 cup (34g)4
Salad Dressingnot in our table0
Saladnot 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.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. Lettuce + watercresstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Watercress + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lettuce + radishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together58 recipes

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

  4. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide juicy, acidic flesh that forms the filling's moist base and bright flavour.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly savoury crunch to the cucumber filling.
Cucumbers
Contribute cool, crisp texture and moisture to the filling.
Hard boiled eggs
Add a firm, rich protein element that gives the salad body.
Cream salad dressing
Adds fat and creaminess, coating the vegetables and carrying seasoning.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, cream, lettuce, watercress, onion, radish, egg):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, cream, lettuce, watercress, onion, radish, egg. 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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