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Salad

Corn Salad

A corn salad with cabbage, celery, bell peppers, mustard, turmeric, sugar, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Corn Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut corn from the cob and chop the vegetables finely. Mix all ingredients together.

Cook and store

  1. Cook slowly for two hours.

  2. Put into small airtight cans.

  3. Keep in the refrigerator once opened.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the bulk and crisp texture of the salad.
Bell peppers
Add crunch, mild sweetness and fresh vegetable flavour.
Celery
Adds a crisp texture and a fresh, slightly savoury note.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the other flavours.
Dry mustard
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that deepens during cooking.
Turmeric
Gives the salad its yellow colour and an earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for two hours. Long, gentle heat softens the vegetables and blends the flavours, while higher heat can scorch the sugar and make the mixture taste burnt and bitter.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, celery, turmeric, pepper, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, celery, turmeric, pepper, sugar. 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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