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Salad

Herring Salad

A salad of cubed herring, potatoes, apples, pickles, beets, bacon, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Herring Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the herring overnight.

  2. Remove the skin and bones, then cut the herring into small cubes.

  3. Boil the potatoes with their skins, then peel and cube them when cold.

  4. Peel and cube the apples.

  5. Cube the sour cucumber pickles and red beets.

Assemble and dress

  1. Cut the bacon into small pieces, brown it, and pour it over the mixture.

  2. Add vinegar to taste and mix everything thoroughly but gently.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Potato + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

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

  3. Potato + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

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

  4. Apple + cucumbertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

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

  5. Apple + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,884 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Herring
Forms the main body of the salad and provides its savoury flavour.
Potatoes
Add bulk and a soft, starchy texture that holds the cubes together.
Apples
Add crisp texture and a mild sweetness that balances the vinegar.
Sour cucumber pickles
Add acidity and a crunchy texture.
Red beets
Add colour, earthy sweetness and a tender texture.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, browned flavour to the salad.

The step that matters

Soak the herring overnight. Soaking draws out excess salt from the cured fish, so the herring tastes mild rather than overly salty once it is mixed with the other ingredients.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cucumber, vinegar):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cucumber, 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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