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Salad

How We Cook in Tennessee

A fruit salad of walnuts, Malaga grapes, orange and candied cherries, topped with salad dressing and whipped cream, served with wafers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 28 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,771 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. For the salad dressing, cook the eggs, vinegar, mustard, sugar, butter and salt in a double boiler, stirring constantly.

  2. For the cream dressing for fruit salad, mix the salt, mustard, flour, sugar and beaten egg, add the butter, cream and vinegar slowly.

  3. Cook over boiling water until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly.

  4. When thick, add half a cup of cream if possible.

  5. For the cream salad dressing, beat the eggs, then beat the butter, salt, mustard and sugar together and add to the eggs.

  6. Add the vinegar, then the cream, put in a double boiler and steam until it thickens, stirring constantly.

  7. If you have no cream, use milk and add the yolk of another egg.

Assemble and serve

  1. Break the walnuts into bits.

  2. Cut the Malaga grapes in two and remove the seeds.

  3. Put one cup of salad dressing over the walnuts and grapes.

  4. Just before serving, put one or one and one-half cups of whipped cream over this.

  5. Cut one large orange into pieces and stick them about in the cream, with the quarter pound of candied cherries.

  6. Serve with Long Branch wafers.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

497Calories
10 gProtein
23 gFat
67 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cherry1 cup (138g)87
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Salad Dressingnot 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 Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. Grape + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Grape + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Cooked with the vinegar and butter, they thicken the dressing into a custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded flavour to the cooked dressing.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the dressing and the whipped topping.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness of the dressing and fruit.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing over boiling water. Eggs thicken as they heat, but if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the eggs can scramble and curdle. Gentle heat in a double boiler with constant stirring keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, cream, sugar, butter, vinegar, mustard, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, cream, sugar, butter, vinegar, mustard, 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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