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Waldorf Salad

A salad of sliced apples, celery, walnuts, and lemon juice, dressed with mayonnaise or boiled dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Waldorf Salad

Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the sliced apples, chopped celery, and walnut pieces.

  2. Drizzle with lemon juice and mix well.

  3. Add mayonnaise or boiled dressing to taste and stir to combine.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  2. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 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

Sour apples
Provide crisp texture and a tart flavour that balances the rich dressing.
Celery
Adds crunch and freshness to the salad.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour.
Mayonnaise or boiled dressing
Adds moisture and richness, binding the salad together.

The step that matters

Drizzling lemon juice over the apples. Lemon juice is acidic, which slows browning of cut apple flesh by reducing the oxidation that turns it brown. Tossing it through the apples early keeps them pale and fresh while the salad waits to be dressed.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, lemon, walnut, meat):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, lemon, walnut, meat. 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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