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Salad

Russian Salad

A salad of boiled potatoes, eggs, olive oil, vinegar, capers, and optional anchovies or fowl liver, garnished with pickles and beetroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Russian Salad

Why it works: Olive and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,688 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the hot potatoes and break them into small pieces with a silver fork.

  2. Boil the eggs hard, then chop the yolks and whites separately.

Make and assemble

  1. In a bowl, mix the olive oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, capers, and anchovies or fowl liver if using.

  2. Combine half of the chopped eggs with the sauce and place it in the serving dish.

  3. Smooth the surface and cover it with the remaining chopped eggs.

  4. Garnish with pickles and beetroot.

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. Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Potato + caperstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Floury potatoes break apart softly and absorb the dressing, giving the salad its body.
Eggs
Chopped hard-boiled eggs add richness and a firm, crumbly texture to the salad.
Olive oil
Oil carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Acidity sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and eggs.
Capers
Briny, sharp bits add a salty, acidic punch that cuts through the richness.

The step that matters

Peel the hot potatoes and break them into small pieces. Potatoes are easiest to peel and break while hot, and floury potatoes soak up dressing best when warm. Cold, waxy potatoes resist breaking and stay watery and bland.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, olive, vinegar, pepper, capers, fish, liver):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, vinegar, pepper, capers, fish, liver. 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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