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Russian Salad

A cold salad of diced chicken, tongue, fish, carrots, potatoes, string beans, onion, watercress, lettuce, mayonnaise, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Russian Salad

Why it works: Watercress and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 307 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dice the cold chicken, tongue, and fish.

Arrange the dish

  1. Arrange the chicken, tongue, and fish on a dish in three parts, with the tongue in the middle.

  2. Create a border with the diced carrots and potatoes.

  3. Place the string beans carefully around the dish, keeping each ingredient distinct.

Finish

  1. Pour mayonnaise evenly over the salad before serving.

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. Watercress + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beans + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together500 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + watercresstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise
Its emulsified oil adds richness and moisture, coating the diced ingredients.
Potatoes
Their starch gives the salad body and a soft, filling texture.
Chicken
Cooked lean meat adds firm texture and substance to the salad.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, fish, potato, beans, onion, watercress, lettuce):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, fish, potato, beans, onion, watercress, lettuce. 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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