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Waldorf Salad

A salad of celery, apples, hickory nuts, dressed with a creamy egg yolk vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Waldorf Salad

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped celery, apples, and hickory nuts.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, whisk together egg yolks, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar.

  2. Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens, but do not let it boil.

  3. Remove from heat and thin the dressing with cream.

Combine

  1. Pour the dressing over the salad mixture and toss to combine.

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

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Celery + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a rich, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and cream.
Cream
Thins the cooked dressing and adds smoothness and richness.
Apples
Provide crisp texture and fresh sweetness to the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken gently as their proteins set at moderate heat. If the mixture boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving the dressing grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the nuts

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, apple, egg, vinegar, pepper, sugar, cream. 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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