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Salad

Italian Salad

A salad of boiled shrimp, eels, celery, pickles, onions, and a dressing of vinegar, mustard, egg yolks, olive oil, and milk.

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.

  3. Cool the eels, remove bones, and cut into pieces the same size as the shrimps.

  4. Wash the celery stalks. Split the celery stalks lengthwise into quarters.

  5. Cut the celery into ½ inch pieces; add to the bowl with the fish.

  6. Slice the cucumber pickles. Mix the sliced pickles with the other ingredients.

Make the dressing

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

  2. Beat the egg yolks and olive oil together. Stir in the milk until thicker than cream; do not boil.

  3. Pour the mixture into a bowl and let it cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix the cooled dressing with the salad.

  2. Garnish the salad dish 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
Yolks thicken the dressing into a rich, creamy emulsion when gently heated.
Olive oil
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the yolks form a smooth dressing.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Eels
Provide the main fish flavour and a firm, meaty texture in the salad.
Shrimps
Add sweet, delicate seafood flavour and tender texture to the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly bitter vegetal flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk without boiling. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the mixture boils the proteins curdle and scramble, leaving a grainy dressing instead of a smooth, creamy one.

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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