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A Macedoine Salad

A salad of boiled peas, string beans, celery, carrots, and beets dressed with French dressing and garnished with nasturtium blooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓

A Macedoine Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill all vegetables in the refrigerator until stiff.

Arrange and serve

  1. In a chilled shallow bowl, heap the beets in the center.

  2. Arrange a ring of celery dice next to the beets, followed by the string beans, carrots, and finally the peas, forming a mound.

  3. Pour French dressing over the salad.

  4. Garnish with a wreath of nasturtium blooms around the base.

  5. Set on ice until ready to serve.

  6. Optionally, serve with mayonnaise dressing.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

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

  4. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 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

Green peas
Add sweetness, bright color and a soft, tender bite to the salad.
String beans
Contribute a tender-crisp texture and mild, fresh flavor between the softer vegetables.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly sharp note that contrasts with the softer vegetables.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness, color and a firm, tender texture to the mixed salad.
Red beets
Provide deep color and an earthy sweetness that stains and flavors the surrounding vegetables.
French dressing
Adds acidity and oil that moisten the vegetables and carry flavor through the salad.

The step that matters

Chill all vegetables in the refrigerator until stiff.. Cooked vegetables soften easily. Chilling firms their cell structure so they hold their shape when arranged and dressed, and release less liquid that would dilute the dressing and blur the colors.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Lima beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

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