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Salad

Spanish Pepper Salad

A chilled salad of pimentos, celery, and pecans with a gelatinous dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pepper Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatine base

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in cold water and vinegar.

  2. Add sugar, lemon juice, salt, and boiling water; mix well.

  3. Stir in pimentos, celery, and pecans.

Mold and serve

  1. Mold the mixture and serve on lettuce leaves.

  2. For the dressing, whisk together mustard, egg yolks, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm mold that holds its shape when served.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that stays firm within the set gelatine.
Pecans
Add crunch and a nutty flavour against the soft gelatine.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and mustard to thicken the dressing.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, carrying its flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the salad and balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine in cold water and vinegar. Gelatine must hydrate fully in cold liquid before heat is applied. If it is added to hot liquid directly, it may clump and fail to set evenly.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, lemon, celery, mustard, egg, olive. 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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