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Salad

Meat Salads

A chilled salad of leftover cooked meat, celery, and apples dressed with oil, vinegar, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,155 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Meat Salads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop leftover meat into bite-sized pieces.

  2. Dice celery and apples.

  3. In a bowl, combine meat, celery, and apples.

Dress and serve

  1. Drizzle with oil and vinegar, and mix gently.

  2. Add mayonnaise or boiled dressing to taste.

  3. Serve chilled.

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

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

  2. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Apple + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,884 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + appletop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together856 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover cooked chicken, pork, or veal
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, crunchy bite.
Apples
Add crunch and a mild sweetness that balances the dressing.
Oil
Adds fat and moisture, coating the meat and vegetables for a smoother mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness of the fat.
Mayonnaise or boiled dressing
Adds creaminess and moisture, binding the salad together.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, vinegar. 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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