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Macedoine Salad

A salad of boiled vegetables mixed with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Macedoine Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut all vegetables into proper sized pieces.

  2. Mix the vegetables carefully and ensure they are free from moisture.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the mixed vegetables neatly in a salad bowl.

  2. Cover with mayonnaise dressing and serve.

  3. Add lemon juice if desired.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Beans + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together292 recipes

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

  3. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  5. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise dressing
Coats the vegetables with fat and richness, adding moisture and a creamy texture.
Boiled beet
Adds colour and a mild sweetness to the salad.
Boiled carrot
Adds colour, body and a mild sweetness to the mixed vegetables.
Green peas
Contribute tender texture and a sweet, fresh flavour.

The step that matters

Ensure the vegetables are free from moisture before dressing. Excess water dilutes the mayonnaise, making it thin and runny, and can make the salad soggy. Drying the cut pieces lets the dressing cling and keeps the texture firm.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, beans, asparagus, carrot, onion, celery):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, beans, asparagus, carrot, onion, celery. 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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