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Salad

Apple and Cheese Salad

A salad of sliced apples, pecans, and cream cheese balls served on lettuce with cream dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Apple and Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese balls

  1. Mix chopped pecans with twice their bulk of cream cheese.

  2. Add thick cream to blend the mixture.

  3. Season with pepper and salt, then form into tiny balls.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pare, core, and slice apples into rings about ½ inch thick.

  2. Arrange apple rings on lettuce leaves and place cheese balls in the center.

  3. Serve with cream salad dressing.

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. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  2. Pecans + cream cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

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

  5. Cream cheese + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped pecans
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft cheese.
Cream cheese
Binds the pecans and gives the cheese balls a rich, smooth body.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and softness so the mixture blends and holds its shape.
Tart apples
Provide acidity and crisp juiciness that balance the rich cheese.

The step that matters

Blending the cheese mixture with cream. Cream must be added gradually so the cream cheese becomes smooth and workable. Too much liquid at once makes it loose and hard to shape into balls that hold together.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pecans, cream cheese, cream, pepper, lettuce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pecans, cream cheese, cream, pepper, 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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