Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cheese Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Rub the yolk of the hard-boiled egg into a powder.
Mix the egg yolk with the salad oil until well combined.
Combine and serve
Add the salt, pepper, sugar, mustard, and grated cheese to the mixture.
Work all ingredients together before pouring in the vinegar.
Serve in a crab shell if available, and enjoy with crackers and butter.
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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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + vinegartop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Old cheese
- Provides the main body and sharp flavour of the salad.
- Hard-boiled egg
- Its yolk is crumbled and blended with oil to bind and enrich the mixture.
- Salad oil
- Carries the egg yolk into a smooth, emulsified base that coats the cheese.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the cheese and oil.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that complements the cheese.
The step that matters
Work all ingredients together before pouring in the vinegar. Mixing the cheese, yolk and oil thoroughly first spreads the seasonings evenly. Adding the vinegar afterward keeps it from separating the oil and yolk base before it is well combined.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, egg, vinegar, pepper, sugar):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Cucumberfits less well
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, vinegar, pepper, sugar. 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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