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Almond Salad

A salad of blanched almonds, chopped celery, hard‑boiled eggs, sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Almond Salad

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and chop the almonds.

  2. Chop the celery and the whites of the hard-boiled eggs.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the yolks of the eggs with the sugar to form a paste.

  2. Add vinegar, salt, pepper, and French mustard to the yolk mixture to taste.

  3. Stir in the turmeric powder.

Combine

  1. Combine all ingredients and adjust moisture with additional vinegar and mustard as needed.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main bulk and crunchy texture of the salad.
Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks form a creamy binding paste; whites add mild body.
Sugar
Sweetens the yolk paste and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and loosens the paste.
Celery
Adds crisp, fresh texture that contrasts with the creamy yolks.

The step that matters

Rubbing the yolks with the sugar to form a paste. Yolks must be worked until smooth so no lumps remain; a fully blended paste spreads evenly through the salad and gives a uniform, creamy texture.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, egg, sugar, vinegar, pepper, mustard, turmeric):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, egg, sugar, vinegar, pepper, mustard, turmeric. 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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