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Salad

Shad Roe and Cucumber Salad

A salad of simmered shad roe, cucumber, onion, and French dressing served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shad Roe and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roe

  1. Simmer the shad roe in salted water with the vinegar and bay leaf for 20 minutes.

  2. Cool the shad roe.

  3. Cut the shad roe into slices and cubes.

Assemble the salad

  1. Pour the French dressing over the shad roe.

  2. Add the cucumber and mayonnaise to moisten.

  3. Place the salad on a bed of crisp lettuce leaves.

  4. Garnish with sliced cucumbers.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad roe
Forms the main body of the salad as its protein and richness.
Cucumber
Adds cool, crisp texture and moisture to the salad.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess that moistens the salad.
French dressing
Adds acidity and sweetness that flavour the roe.

The step that matters

Simmer the shad roe. Simmering gently in acidified, salted water keeps the delicate roe firm and intact. Boiling hard can toughen it and break it apart, so the roe will be harder to slice into clean cubes.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against roe, cucumber, vinegar, 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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