Why it works: Capers and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 379 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Dutch Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash, split, and bone the anchovies, then roll each one up.
Wash, split, and bone the herring, then cut it into small pieces.
Cut the Bologna or Lyons sausage or smoked ham into dice.
Cut the cold roast fowl or veal into dice.
Dice the beet-roots, pickled cucumbers, and cold boiled potatoes.
Assemble and serve
Mix all ingredients together, reserving the olives and anchovies for garnish.
Beat together oil, Tarragon vinegar, white pepper, and French mustard to taste.
Pour the dressing over the salad and serve.
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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Capers + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together379 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cucumber + caperstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together303 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,688 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cucumber + tarragontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together274 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Anchovies
- Provide a salty, savoury flavour that seasons the whole salad.
- Herring
- Adds rich, oily flavour and a firm, flaky texture to the salad.
- Cold roast fowl or veal
- Supplies the main meaty body and bulk of the salad.
- Cold boiled potatoes
- Add starchy bulk and soak up the dressing, giving the salad body.
- Beet-roots
- Add sweetness, earthy flavour and a bright colour.
- Oil
- Carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, cucumber, capers, egg, olive, tarragon):
- Shallotfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Chivefits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, cucumber, capers, egg, olive, tarragon. 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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