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Salad

Beetroot and Macaroni Salad

A salad of boiled beetroot and macaroni dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,682 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beetroot and Macaroni Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni and beetroot according to package directions.

  2. Once cooled, peel and slice the beetroot, and cut the macaroni into 2-inch pieces.

Assemble and dress

  1. Arrange the beetroot and macaroni in alternate layers on a serving dish.

  2. Mix the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, then pour over the salad.

  3. Let it stand for 1 hour, basting continually with the dressing until bright red.

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. Beetroot + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,682 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Beetroot + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides the bulk and starchy body that holds the salad together.
Beetroot
Supplies the red colour, earthy sweetness and main flavour of the salad.
Oil
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps draw out the beetroot's red colour.

The step that matters

Basting until bright red. Beetroot's red pigments dissolve into the acidic dressing, so the salad only turns deep red if it stands and is basted repeatedly. Stopping early leaves the colour pale and uneven.

Swap the beetroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar. 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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