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Salad

Parisian Salad

A salad of apple and cream cheese balls served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Parisian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Using a vegetable scoop, cut 24 small balls from the apples and cover them with French dressing immediately.

  2. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese with Worcestershire sauce, chopped pickles, salt, and pepper.

  3. Form 12 larger balls from the cream cheese mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve the apple balls and cream cheese balls on crisp lettuce leaves.

  2. Garnish with tiny pickles.

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. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  2. Apple + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together515 recipes

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

  3. Apple + cream cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Apple + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,026 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + lettucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the crisp, mild fruit base that is shaped into balls for the salad.
Cream cheese
Gives the rich, creamy body that holds the shaped balls together.
French dressing
Adds acidity and flavor, and its oil and vinegar coat the apple to slow browning.
Pickles
Add a tangy, sharp flavor that contrasts with the rich cream cheese.

The step that matters

Cover the apple balls with French dressing immediately. Cut apple flesh oxidizes and turns brown within minutes when exposed to air. Coating it right away with an acidic dressing slows browning and keeps the balls looking fresh.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, sauce, pepper, lettuce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, sauce, pepper, 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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