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Salad

Grouse Salad

A salad of hard-boiled eggs and roasted grouse set on fresh salad, dressed with a shalot, oil, vinegar and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Grouse Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs hard, shell them, and throw them into cold water.

  2. Cut a thin slice off the bottom of each egg, then cut each egg into four lengthwise.

Prepare the dish and grouse

  1. Make a very thin flat border of butter about one inch from the edge of the serving dish.

  2. Fix the pieces of egg upright close to each other, with the yolk outside, or the yolk and white alternately.

  3. Lay a fresh salad of whatever is in season in the centre.

  4. Roast the grouse rather underdone, and cut it into eight or ten pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Put the shalots into a basin with the sugar, the yolk of an egg, the parsley and the salt.

  2. Mix in the oil and vinegar by degrees.

  3. Put the sauce on ice or in a cool place.

  4. When ready to serve, whip the cream rather thick and lightly mix it with the sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Lay the inferior parts of the grouse on the salad and sauce over so as to cover each piece.

  2. Lay the salad and the remainder of the grouse over, pour the rest of the sauce over, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

309Calories
7 gProtein
25 gFat
15 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
The hard-boiled whites and yolks form the structure and visual border of the salad.
Oil
Forms an emulsion with the yolk and vinegar, giving the sauce its body and richness.
Chili vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil and cream.
Cream
Whipped and folded into the sauce, adding lightness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Grouse
The main meat, roasted rather underdone so it stays tender and moist.

The step that matters

Mix in the oil and vinegar by degrees. Adding oil slowly to the yolk and shallot lets the mixture emulsify. Pouring it in all at once can split the sauce so it becomes greasy and loose.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cream, 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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