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Russian Salad

A cold salad of boiled vegetables, aspic jelly, mayonnaise, and lobster, arranged in a mold.

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

Why it works: Turnip and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 336 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the carrots, onion, turnip, and potatoes until tender.

  2. Cut the boiled vegetables into small square pieces and let them cool.

  3. Cut the beetroot into small pieces.

Arrange and set

  1. Arrange the vegetables in small groups in a mold with a hollow center, using different colors fancifully.

  2. Fill the mold with the vegetables and pour in nearly cold aspic jelly.

  3. Place the mold in the refrigerator to set.

  4. Once set, turn out the salad from the mold.

Finish

  1. In the hollow center, add a little mayonnaise sauce and a few small pieces of lobster.

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. Turnip + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together336 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + beetroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together699 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 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

Potatoes
Provide starchy bulk that holds the diced salad together and gives it body.
Aspic jelly
Sets around the diced vegetables so the salad keeps its molded shape when turned out.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds fat and creaminess to the hollow center, giving a rich, smooth contrast to the firm vegetables.
Beetroot
Adds bright color and an earthy sweetness to the arranged vegetables.

The step that matters

Pour in nearly cold aspic jelly. If the aspic is too warm, it can partly dissolve or cloud the arrangement, and if it is too cold it may set before it settles between the pieces. Nearly cold, liquid aspic flows into gaps and then sets firmly, so the molded shape holds when turned out.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, turnip, potato, beetroot, sauce, lobster):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, turnip, potato, beetroot, sauce, lobster. 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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