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Spaghetti Salad

A cold salad of spaghetti, potato, eggs, celery, cheese, onion juice, pimento, tomatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spaghetti Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spaghetti

  1. Boil the spaghetti in salted water until soft.

  2. Transfer the cooked spaghetti to a bowl of ice water to cool, then dry it on a soft towel.

Make the salad

  1. In a bowl, mix the spaghetti with the potato, eggs, celery, cheese, onion juice, pimento, and tomatoes.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, white pepper, and paprika.

  3. Pour salad dressing over the mixture.

  4. Let the salad stand for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the salad on lettuce leaves.

  2. Garnish with a slice of tomato and half a stuffed olive on top.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Spaghetti
Forms the bulk of the salad and gives it a tender, chewy body.
Eggs
Add richness and body to the salad as they are chopped through the mixture.
Salad dressing
Adds moisture and creamy flavour that coats the pasta and other ingredients.
Sharp cheese
Adds savoury, tangy flavour and a little fat to the salad.
White potato
Adds starchy bulk and a soft texture that blends with the pasta.

The step that matters

Cool and dry the spaghetti before mixing. Cooked pasta that stays warm or wet absorbs dressing unevenly and turns soggy or greasy. Chilling in ice water stops the cooking, and drying removes surface water so the dressing clings and the salad holds its texture.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, celery, cheese, onion, tomato, lettuce):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, celery, cheese, onion, tomato, 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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