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Salad

Vegetable Salads

A salad of cooked vegetables dressed with oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt, optionally topped with cold meat, fish, eggs, or beetroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beetroot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,682 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Salads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice or mince the cooked vegetables.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Dress and rest

  1. Combine with oil and vinegar in a bowl, using 2 tablespoons of oil to 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

  2. Mix lightly and let sit for 1-2 hours to absorb the flavors.

Finish and serve

  1. Add cold meat or fish if desired, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs or sliced beetroot.

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. Pepper + beetroottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,682 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + beetroottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked vegetables of your choice
Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the dressing's flavors as they rest.
Oil
Carries fat-soluble flavors and coats the vegetables for a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Let the salad rest. Resting for 1-2 hours lets the dressing soak into the cut vegetables so the flavors blend. Mixing gently keeps the pieces from breaking down and turning mushy.

Swap the beetroot

The recipe marks beetroot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, meat, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, meat, egg. 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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