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Salad

Carrot Salad

A salad of boiled carrots tossed with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Carrot Salad

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Carrot Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Wash and boil the carrots until tender.

  2. Scrape the carrots and cut them into thin slices.

Dress and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add the sliced carrots and toss to combine.

  3. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 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

Carrots
Form the main body of the salad; boiling softens them so they slice thinly and take up dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the carrots and balances the richness of the oil.
Oil
Carries the seasonings and gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel that coats the carrots.

The step that matters

Boil the carrots until just tender. Overboiling breaks down the carrots' cell walls, making them soft and mushy. Carrots cooked just until tender hold their shape when sliced thinly and keep a pleasant bite.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Mustardfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, parsley, 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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