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Waldorf Salad

A salad of diced apples, celery, walnuts, and a creamy dressing of eggs, mustard, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Waldorf Salad

Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dice the apples and slice the celery thinly.

  2. Combine the apples, celery, and chopped walnuts in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, mustard, salt, sugar, cream, and vinegar.

  2. Cook the dressing over low heat until it thickens, stirring constantly.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the salad mixture and toss gently.

  2. Serve the salad on lettuce leaves.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 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

Eggs
Thicken the cooked dressing as their proteins set, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the sweetness and richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the tartness of the vinegar and apples.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the dressing's flavour and texture.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty, slightly bitter flavour that contrasts the soft fruit and dressing.
Diced apples
Provide crisp texture and sweet-tart juiciness to the salad.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat until it thickens. Egg proteins begin to set around moderate heat and can scramble if the heat is too high or stirring stops. Gentle, constant stirring over low heat keeps the dressing smooth and lets it thicken evenly.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, walnut, lettuce, egg, mustard, sugar, cream):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, walnut, lettuce, egg, mustard, sugar, cream. 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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