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Salad

Salsify Salad

A salad of sliced salsify, cabbage or lettuce, celery, paprika or cayenne, topped with Decimayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Salsify Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salsify

  1. Scrape the salsify roots under water and slice them thin.

  2. Salt the slices thoroughly and let them stand for 30 minutes.

  3. Shake the salsify for a few minutes and drain off the salt water.

  4. Rinse the slices in cold water 2 or 3 times quickly.

Assemble the salad

  1. Shred the cabbage or lettuce finely and spread it on a platter.

  2. Add finely cut or split bleached celery on top of the greens.

  3. Layer the prepared salsify over the celery.

  4. Sprinkle with paprika or a little cayenne pepper.

  5. Cover with Decimayonnaise.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + celerytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,131 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify roots
Provide the main body and mild, oyster-like flavour of the salad.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out water and bitterness from the sliced salsify before rinsing.
Cabbage or lettuce
Forms the crisp, fresh base that the salsify rests on.
Bleached celery
Adds crunch and a mild, clean celery flavour to the layers.
Decimayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess that coats the salsify and greens.

The step that matters

Rinsing the salted salsify. Salting draws out liquid and flavour, so a brief, quick rinse removes excess salt without washing away all seasoning. Rinsing too long leaves the slices bland, while skipping it leaves them too salty.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, celery, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, celery, 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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