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Salad

Pineapple Salad

A chilled salad of shredded pineapple, celery, red pepper, and mayonnaise dressing served on lettuce hearts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Combine shredded pineapple, chopped celery, and diced red pepper in a bowl.

Make the mayonnaise

  1. Whisk together the yolks of 3 eggs, ½ cup best olive oil, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and a little salt.

  2. Stir the yolks and salt with a wooden or silver spoon, adding oil and vinegar alternately while stirring vigorously.

  3. Ensure the mayonnaise is thick and velvety, taking about 30 minutes to prepare.

Serve

  1. Serve the salad very cold on lettuce hearts, garnished with nut meats.

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 + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  4. Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together271 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Pineapple + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together533 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs (in the method)
Yolks emulsify the oil and vinegar, giving the mayonnaise its thick, stable body.
Olive oil (in the method)
Forms the fat phase of the mayonnaise, providing richness and a velvety texture.
Vinegar (in the method)
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and sharpens the dressing.
Pineapple
Adds sweetness and juiciness to the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and freshness to the salad.

The step that matters

Adding oil and vinegar alternately while stirring vigorously. Oil must be dispersed into small droplets among the egg yolks to form a stable emulsion. Adding it too fast or stirring too gently can cause the mayonnaise to break and separate.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, cream, lettuce, meat. 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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