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Salad

Salad, Flemish

A salad of sliced herring, boiled potatoes, Brussels sprouts, green onions, and celery dressed with oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salad, Flemish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the heads and tails from the herrings and slice them into ½-inch thick pieces.

  2. Cut the fish slantwise and arrange them in their natural position.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the potatoes, Brussels sprouts, green onions, and celery until tender, then cut the potatoes into squares.

Combine and season

  1. Combine the fish and vegetables in a bowl.

  2. Season with oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Herrings
Provide the main fish flesh that forms the body of the salad.
Potatoes
Add starchy bulk that holds its shape once boiled and cut into squares.
Brussels sprouts
Contribute tender body and a mildly bitter, earthy flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the fish and cuts its richness.
Oil
Adds fat that carries seasoning and gives the salad a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil the vegetables until tender. Undercooked potatoes stay hard and chalky, while overcooked ones crumble when cut into squares. Boiling until just tender gives pieces that hold their shape and absorb the dressing evenly.

Swap the brussels sprouts

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, celery, vinegar, 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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