Skip to main content
Salad

Apple and Date Salad

A salad of sliced apples and chopped dates tossed with olive oil, served on lettuce with bread and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Olive and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,580 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Apple and Date Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the pared apples into tiny strips.

  2. Cut the dates into similar pieces, using about one-fourth as much date as apple.

Combine and rest

  1. In a bowl, combine the apples and dates with the olive oil.

  2. Mix well and let stand, covered, for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve in a bowl lined with lettuce leaves, alongside bread and butter.

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. Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Dates + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Apple + datestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk and crisp, juicy texture of the salad.
Dates
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture against the apple.
Olive oil
Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel that coats the apple and date pieces.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, olive, lettuce, bread, butter. 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.

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes