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Salad

Apple and Celery Salad

A salad of diced apples, celery, and grapes dressed with a sweetened egg and vinegar mixture, topped with walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Apple and Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Combine diced celery, diced apples, and halved grapes in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, salt, and pepper together.

  2. Add the vinegar to the egg mixture and stir well.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, then add the egg mixture.

  4. Stir constantly while cooking until thickened.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well.

  2. Serve each portion garnished with broken walnut meats.

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. Apple + grapetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Celery + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Grape + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,909 recipes

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

  5. Celery + grapetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together627 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it a creamy, set texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sugar and the richness of the dressing.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and offsets the tartness of the vinegar and apples.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, smoothing the cooked dressing.
Jonathan apples
Provide crisp texture and tart-sweet flavor to the salad.
Celery
Adds crunch and fresh, savory bulk to the salad.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while cooking until thickened. Egg yolks and whole eggs can curdle or scramble if overheated or left unstirred. Constant stirring over low heat gently cooks the eggs evenly, producing a smooth, thickened dressing instead of lumps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, grape, egg, sugar, vinegar, butter, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, grape, egg, sugar, vinegar, butter, pepper. 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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