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Veal Salad

A chilled veal salad with celery, almonds, mustard, eggs, and a creamy dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Veal Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad base

  1. In a large bowl, combine the cold chopped veal, finely cut celery, and chopped almonds.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix together the mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar.

  3. Beat the eggs separately and add them to the mustard mixture.

Make the dressing

  1. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thick, stirring constantly.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, lime juice, and cream.

  3. If the mixture curdles, add another egg.

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

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together246 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook and bind it into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Veal
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty texture throughout the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh body to the salad.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing in a double boiler. Eggs thicken gently with steady, indirect heat and stirring. If they get too hot, the proteins seize and the mixture curdles, which is why the recipe calls for adding another egg if this happens.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, celery, mustard, sugar, pepper, vinegar, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, celery, mustard, sugar, pepper, vinegar, 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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