Name: German Salad
Ingredients: any kind of cold boiled vegetable (cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, etc.); chopped onion (optional); chopped raw apple (optional); pepper; coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 4 tablespoons oil; sliced beetroot (for garnish); parsley (for garnish)

Why it works: Cabbage and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 305 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

German Salad

Ingredients

any kind of cold boiled vegetable (cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, etc.)
chopped onion (optional)
chopped raw apple (optional)
pepper
coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons oil
sliced beetroot (for garnish)
parsley (for garnish)

Directions

Cut the cold boiled vegetables into small pieces.
If desired, add chopped onion and chopped raw apple.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 4 tablespoons of oil for every 2 pounds of vegetables.
Serve in a salad bowl and garnish with sliced beetroot and parsley.

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.

Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together305 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together275 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled vegetables: Form the bulk of the salad and carry the dressing in their small pieces.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Oil: Adds fat and moisture that coat the vegetables and carry flavour.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, potato, apple, pepper, vinegar):

Broccolifits better
Mustardfits better
Cucumberfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, potato, apple, pepper, 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.