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Salad

Italian Salad

A cold salad of herring, potatoes, pickles, beets, veal, tongue, apples, carrots, celery root, mayonnaise, eggs, capers, olives, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Italian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Soak the herrings in milk overnight.

  2. Remove the skin and bones, then chop the herrings finely.

  3. Chop the boiled potatoes, vinegar pickles, and boiled beets.

  4. Chop the cold roast veal and smoked tongue.

  5. Chop the apples, carrots, and celery root after cooking and peeling.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly and pour mayonnaise dressing over them.

  2. Serve in a large bowl, garnishing with chopped hard-boiled eggs, capers, olives, and beets.

  3. Create a basket from a hard-boiled egg filled with capers for the center decoration.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
Provides the main fish flavour and a soft, flaky texture throughout the salad.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds moisture and richness, binding the chopped ingredients together.
Potatoes
Adds body and bulk, absorbing some of the dressing to hold the salad together.
Beets
Contribute colour and a gentle earthy sweetness.
Celery root
Adds a crisp, crunchy texture that contrasts with the soft ingredients.
Apples
Add a fresh, slightly sweet and tart note and crisp texture.

The step that matters

Remove the skin and bones, then chop the herrings finely.. Small bones left in the herring can be a choking hazard in a salad where the fish is mixed through everything. Fine chopping also spreads the fish evenly so every bite has the same texture.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, potato, vinegar, veal, carrot, celery, egg):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, potato, vinegar, veal, carrot, celery, 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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