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Salad

Waldorf Salad

A salad of celery, apples, pecans, and dressing served on lettuce.

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 lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped celery and apples in equal parts.

  2. Add chopped pecans and mix lightly.

Dress and serve

  1. Toss with your choice of dressing and chill in the refrigerator.

  2. Serve on a bed of pretty 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. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Pecans + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Celery + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

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

  4. Apple + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Apple + pecanstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Add crisp texture and a sweet, tart flavor that balances the celery.
Celery
Contributes crunch and a fresh, mildly savory note.
Pecans
Add crunch and a toasty, buttery flavor.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, apple, 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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