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Salad

Swedish Salad

A salad of sardines, cold meat, beet, potato, parsley, dressed with oil, vinegar, onion juice, and garnished with hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Swedish Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone and skin the sardines, then cut each into 4 pieces.

  2. In a bowl, combine sardines, cold meat, onion juice, beet, potato, and parsley.

Assemble and dress

  1. Line a serving bowl with lettuce leaves and transfer the mixture into it.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, then pour over the salad.

  3. Garnish with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

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. Lettuce + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Provide the main fish flavour and a tender, flaky texture in the salad.
Oil
Adds richness and moisture, coating the other ingredients and carrying flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil and fish.
Potato
Adds body and a soft, starchy texture that soaks up some of the dressing.
Beet
Adds earthy sweetness and a deep colour to the salad.

The step that matters

Pour the dressing over the salad. Oil and vinegar separate unless well mixed, so whisk them thoroughly before pouring. Dressing too early can make the potato and beet soggy, so add it just before serving.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, parsley, lettuce, vinegar, tarragon, pepper):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, parsley, lettuce, vinegar, tarragon, pepper. 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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