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Salad

Nut Salad

A salad of walnuts and grapes dressed with a butter, mustard, and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Nut Salad

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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 ↓

Nut Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the English walnuts and slice the white grapes.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites and yolks together until well mixed.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, mustard, cayenne pepper, vinegar, and the beaten eggs.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the mixture boils, then remove from heat and let it cool.

  3. Once cooled, fold in the whipped cream.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the walnuts and grapes with the dressing 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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Walnut + grapetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Grape + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,909 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and set, giving it a creamy, rich body.
Egg whites
Add beaten structure and lightness to the dressing mixture.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and a light, airy richness to the cooled dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the mustard, cayenne and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and cuts through its richness.
English walnuts
Provide crunch and a fatty, nutty flavour against the grapes.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture until it boils. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with heat, but overheating can curdle them into lumps. Stir constantly over medium heat and cool before folding in the whipped cream.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, egg, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, egg, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, vinegar. 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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