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Salad

Salade Columbine

A chilled tomato salad with gelatine, mayonnaise, and optional shrimps served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salade Columbine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato mould

  1. Combine tomatoes, sugar, salt, vinegar, and red pepper in a pot.

  2. Dissolve gelatine in a small amount of water.

  3. Stir the dissolved gelatine into the hot tomato mixture.

  4. Mould the mixture into small cups.

  5. Refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Serve the set mixture on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing.

  2. Garnish with shrimps if desired.

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.

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. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the tomato liquid so it holds its shape when moulded and chilled.
Cooked and strained tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavour and acidity of the salad.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds richness and fat that contrasts with the sharp, tart tomato.

The step that matters

Stir the dissolved gelatine into the hot tomato mixture. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed before moulding. Lumps or undissolved granules leave weak spots, and the mixture will not set firmly and evenly as it cools in the refrigerator.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, pepper, lettuce, shrimp):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, pepper, lettuce, shrimp. 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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