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Nut and Apple Salad

A salad of walnuts, apples, and a vinaigrette with butter, vinegar, egg yolks, mustard, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,035 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Nut and Apple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the walnuts

  1. Combine walnut meats, onion, mace, and bay leaf in a saucepan; cover with boiling water.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain and cover with cold water for 30 minutes.

  4. Drain and dry.

Make the dressing

  1. To make the dressing, melt butter and mix with vinegar, egg yolks, salt, cold water, and dry mustard.

  2. Slowly add whipped cream until the dressing is thick.

  3. Season with cayenne pepper.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut walnuts into several pieces and apples into small pieces.

  2. Mix with part of the dressing.

  3. Just before serving, add the remaining dressing.

  4. Serve on lettuce leaves.

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. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

English walnut meats
Provide the crunchy texture and nutty flavour that make up the body of the salad.
Sour apples
Add tart acidity and a crisp, juicy contrast to the rich dressing.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter and vinegar to thicken the dressing into a smooth, rich base.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and airy body, lightening and enriching the dressing.
Vinegar
Supplies sharpness that balances the richness of the yolks, butter and cream.

The step that matters

Slowly add whipped cream to the dressing. Adding cream gradually lets the yolk and butter mixture absorb it evenly, keeping the dressing smooth and thick rather than thin or separated.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, meat, apple, onion, butter, vinegar, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, meat, apple, onion, butter, vinegar, egg. 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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