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Boiled Salad

A cold salad of boiled beetroot, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, celery, topped with rich salad sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Boiled Salad

Why it works: Beetroot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Boiled Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the beetroot, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and celery until tender.

  2. Slice the beetroot and potatoes.

  3. Cut the celery into large pieces.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the vegetables in a bowl and pour over the rich salad sauce.

  2. Serve the salad cold.

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. Beetroot + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

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

  2. Beetroot + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together652 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Beetroot + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,360 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beetroot
Holds its firm shape when boiled and adds its colour and earthy sweetness to the salad.
Potatoes
Turn tender when boiled and give the salad a soft, starchy body.
Brussels sprouts
Stay firm after boiling and add a slightly bitter, cabbage-like note.
Celery
Stays crisp-tender after boiling and adds a fresh, mildly salty crunch.

The step that matters

Boil until tender. Boiling the vegetables fully softens their starches and cell walls so they slice cleanly and eat tender. Underboiled beetroot stays tough and dense, while overboiled potatoes break apart. Each vegetable needs checking separately.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beetroot, potato, celery, sauce):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beetroot, potato, celery, sauce. 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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