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Turkey Salad

A salad of turkey, celery, eggs, mustard, olive oil, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Turkey Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Use a turkey weighing 8 or 10 lbs. to make 1 gallon salad.

  2. Clear the meat of fat and sinew, and cut into pieces ½ inch square.

  3. Cut celery in equal quantity to turkey, salt to taste.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix yolks of 2 hard‑boiled eggs, 2 tablespoons dry mustard, 9 tablespoons olive oil, 6 tablespoons vinegar, and 1 teaspoon salt together with the beaten yolk of 1 raw egg.

  2. Add oil a few drops at a time, and lastly the white of 1 egg beaten to a froth.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

203Calories
6 gProtein
19 gFat
1 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
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Mustard + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Olive + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,340 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

Turkey (in the method)
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides the main meaty texture.
Eggs
Yolks emulsify with the oil and mustard to thicken the dressing into a smooth, stable sauce.
Olive oil
Provides fat and richness, and forms the body of the emulsified dressing when added slowly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Dry mustard
Acts as an emulsifier that helps hold the oil and vinegar together in the dressing.

The step that matters

Add oil a few drops at a time. Oil added too quickly to the egg yolks and mustard can break the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated dressing. Adding it slowly lets the droplets disperse and bind into a thick, smooth sauce.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, vinegar, 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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