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Waldorf Salad

A salad of diced sour apples, hickory nuts, radishes, celery, and mayonnaise, served on nasturtium leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Waldorf Salad

Why it works: Radish and celery work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 101 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dice the sour apples with a silver knife and soak them in ice water to prevent discoloration.

  2. Chop the hickory nuts, radishes, and celery.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix the chopped ingredients with mayonnaise dressing.

  2. Add the apples and serve immediately on nasturtium leaves, garnished with buds and flowers.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Radish + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together101 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Apple + radishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetal (cream, earthy).

  4. Nuts + celerytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Nuts + radishtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Sour apples
Provide tart, crisp pieces that contrast with the sweet dressing and nuts.
Hickory nuts
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor to the salad.
Radishes
Add crisp texture and a sharp, peppery bite.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild vegetable flavor.
Mayonnaise dressing
Coats the ingredients with fat, adding creaminess and moisture.

The step that matters

Soak the diced apples in ice water. Cut apple flesh oxidizes and browns quickly when exposed to air. Soaking in ice water slows this discoloration and keeps the pieces crisp, so they should be drained and added just before serving.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, radish, celery. 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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