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Salad

Italian Salad

A salad of boiled shrimp and eel with celery, pickles, onions, and a mustard‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Italian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and vegetables

  1. Rinse the shrimps in cold water and let them drain in a colander.

  2. Boil the eels in salted water for 15 minutes, then cool, remove bones, and cut into pieces the same size as the shrimps.

  3. Wash the celery stalks, split them lengthwise into quarters, and cut into ½ inch pieces.

  4. Slice the cucumber pickles and mix them with the fish and celery.

  5. Remove the outer layer from the pickled onions, chop them, and add to the mixture.

Make the dressing

  1. In a skillet, heat the vinegar, mustard, onions, salt, and pepper until hot but not boiling.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and olive oil together, then stir in the milk.

  3. Combine the milk mixture with the hot vinegar mixture, stirring until it thickens but does not boil.

  4. Pour the dressing into the salad and mix well.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish the salad with head lettuce leaves and young celery leaves.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the warm dressing into a smooth, creamy coating for the salad.
Olive oil
Adds fat that gives the dressing body and a rich mouthfeel.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the rich yolks.
Shrimps
Supply the main seafood flavour and firm, tender bite to the salad.
Eels
Add a rich, meaty texture and savoury flavour as the main fish.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, aromatic flavour to the salad.

The step that matters

Thickening the dressing without boiling. Egg yolks set as they heat. If the mixture boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy dressing instead of a smooth, thick one. Stirring over gentle heat keeps it silky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, celery, cucumber, cider, vinegar, mustard, pepper):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, celery, cucumber, cider, vinegar, mustard, 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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