Why it works: Parmesan cheese and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Cheese Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Marinate the veal and tongue in a French dressing made of oil and vinegar for several hours.
Add the Parmesan cheese and an oil mayonnaise to moisten the mixture.
Garnish and serve
Garnish with wild roses, buttercups, daisies, or nasturtium blossoms.
For a decorative touch, press hard-boiled egg white or yolk through a vegetable strainer over the salad.
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.
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Parmesan cheese + vinegartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together584 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Veal + parmesan cheesetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together149 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Veal + vinegartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together948 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Provides the main meaty body of the salad.
- Tongue
- Adds a richer, more savory meat flavour to the mixture.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds salty, savory flavour and helps bind the mixture.
- Oil
- Carries flavour and adds richness to the dressing and mayonnaise.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the meat in the French dressing.
The step that matters
Marinate the veal and tongue in the French dressing. The acidic vinegar and oil penetrate the meat slowly over several hours, flavouring it throughout. Too short a marinade leaves the meat bland on the inside.
“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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