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Salad

Russian Salad

A salad of string beans, parsnip, carrot, lettuce, beet, boiled potato, dressed with French dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Russian Salad

Why it works: Parsnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the vegetables until just tender, then drain and dry them on a napkin.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the string beans, parsnip, carrot, shredded lettuce, sliced beet, and cold boiled potato.

  3. Pour French Dressing over the mixed vegetables and serve.

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. Parsnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  2. Beans + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together500 recipes

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

  3. Parsnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

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

  4. Beans + parsniptop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 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

String beans
Provide crisp-tender texture and a fresh vegetable base for the salad.
Parsnip
Adds sweetness and a firm, tender bite once cooked.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and color, and a firm texture once cooked.
Cold boiled potato
Adds body and starch, giving the salad a heartier texture.

The step that matters

Drying the cooked vegetables before dressing. Excess water left on the cooked vegetables dilutes the French Dressing and stops it clinging, so the salad turns watery. Drying them on a napkin helps the dressing coat each piece.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, parsnip, carrot, lettuce. 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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