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English Salad

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

English Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. The old-fashioned English salad is composed of a mixture in which lettuce is the chief part, but to which is added mustard-and-cress, beetroot, celery, cut up fine, spring onions, etc. The salad-dressing for this varies according to the tradition in the family. It is a compound of milk or cream, hard-boiled yolks of eggs powdered, made mustard, pepper and salt, vinegar used rather freely, anchovy sauce, etc. Oil, which ought to form the chief part of salad dress- ing, used to be dropped carefully as if it were some dangerous poison. Indeed, to a certain extent this was requisite, as the oil too often was grqen and rancid from having been kept too long. Perfectly pure oil, like perfectly pure butter, is almost, if not absolutely, tasteless.

  2. HOME RECIPE BOOK

  3. SALAD DRESSING (WITHOUT OIL).

  4. 1 teaspoonful made mustard. 1 tablespoonful vinegar

  5. Melt the butter in a saucepan ; add the flour, then the milk, very gradually. Let it boil a few minutes. Mix the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with the mustard ; add the vinegar. When the milk, etc., is cold, add it to the vinegar and mustard and egg. Chop the white of eggs to decorate the salad. Mrs. Barron.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

688Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 Hamilton, Margaret. 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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, vinegar, milk, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, vinegar, milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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