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Salad

Almond Salad

A salad of blanched almonds, celery, vinegar, salt, pepper, and mayonnaise served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Almond Salad

Why it works: Almond and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Almond Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine almonds and celery in a bowl.

  2. Add vinegar, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Dress and serve

  1. Drain the mixture and combine with mayonnaise dressing.

  2. Serve on a bed of lettuce.

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. Almond + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

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

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

  5. Almond + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the crunchy, nutty bulk that gives the salad its main texture.
Celery
Adds crisp, moist crunch that contrasts with the softer dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness of the mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and creaminess that binds the salad and carries its flavor.

The step that matters

Drain the mixture before adding the dressing. Excess liquid from the vinegar and celery would thin the mayonnaise dressing and make the salad watery, so draining keeps the dressing thick and clinging.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Almondthe original

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