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Waldorf Salad

A salad of diced apples, celery, nuts, and mayonnaise served on crisp lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Waldorf Salad

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

  1. Cut the apples and mix with half the mayonnaise to prevent discoloration.

  2. Add the celery and nuts, then chill the mixture.

Serve

  1. Heap the salad on crisp lettuce leaves.

  2. Top with the remaining mayonnaise just 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. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Nuts + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

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

  4. Apple + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together515 recipes

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

  5. Nuts + celerytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Apple
Provides the crisp, fresh bulk of the salad.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess, binding the salad together and keeping it moist.
Celery
Adds a crunchy, crisp texture that contrasts with the soft apple.
Nuts
Add crunch and a toasty, rich flavour against the creamy dressing.

The step that matters

Mix the apples with mayonnaise right after cutting. Cut apple flesh oxidises and browns quickly when exposed to air. Coating it promptly with mayonnaise limits contact with oxygen and keeps the salad looking fresh.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, celery, lettuce):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, celery, 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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