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Waldorf Salad

A salad of chopped apples, walnuts, celery, and a dressing of boiled eggs, vinegar, salt, cayenne, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Waldorf Salad

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Chop and mix the apples, walnuts, and celery in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the eggs, vinegar, salt, and cayenne pepper. Stir while boiling until thickened.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the apple mixture and mix well.

  2. Just before serving, fold in the whipped cream.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Apples
Provide the crisp texture and fresh, slightly tart flavor that make up most of the salad.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft apple and celery.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly savory note to the salad.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook with the vinegar, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness of the apples.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when folded into the salad.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing until thickened. Egg proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing. If it boils too hard or too long, the eggs can curdle and turn grainy, so stir constantly and watch closely.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, celery, egg, vinegar, pepper, cream. 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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