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Salad

Salade a LA Chinoise

A chilled salad of sliced potatoes, truffles, oysters, lettuce, anchovies, seasoned with Chablis, herbs, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and chive work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 611 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the potatoes into strips.

  2. Shred the truffles finely.

  3. Blanch the oysters, then drain them.

  4. Remove gills from the oysters.

  5. Wash and trim the lettuces.

  6. Reserve a few crisp leaves for garnish.

Make the salad

  1. Combine the potatoes, truffles, and halved oysters in a bowl.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the chopped herbs.

  4. Moisten with the wine.

  5. Allow to stand for one hour, mixing occasionally.

  6. Pour off excess moisture.

  7. Add the lettuce leaves.

  8. Mix with mayonnaise.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a salad bowl.

  2. Garnish with reserved lettuce leaves and anchovy fillets.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Potato + chivetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Lettuce + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together261 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cabbage + lettucetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together622 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the salad, holding their shape as strips.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour and a tender, delicate texture to the salad.
Truffles
Contribute a strong, earthy aroma that perfumes the whole salad.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess, binding the salad and coating every ingredient.
Chablis
Adds acidity and moisture, lightly flavouring the mixture as it stands.

The step that matters

Pour off excess moisture. Potatoes and oysters release liquid, and with the wine added, excess water would thin the mayonnaise and make the salad soggy. Draining before the dressing is added keeps it creamy and well-textured.

Flavor stand-ins for the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, truffle, oyster, lettuce, anchovy, parsley, chive):

  1. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  2. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  3. Cucumberbetter flavor fit
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, truffle, oyster, lettuce, anchovy, parsley, chive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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