Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Game Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Pick the remains of cold cooked game into fine pieces.
In a bowl, mix the yolk of the hard-boiled egg smoothly with the salad oil.
Stir in salt, pepper, made mustard, walnut ketchup, and vinegar.
Pour the dressing over the game and mix well.
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.
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hard-boiled egg yolk
- Emulsifies the salad oil into a smooth, thick dressing that coats the game.
- Salad oil
- Provides fat and a silky texture to the dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich yolk and oil.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharpness and helps bind the dressing together.
The step that matters
Mixing the yolk smoothly with the oil. Egg yolk lecithin lets oil disperse into tiny droplets; if the yolk is not worked smooth first, the oil can separate and the dressing turns greasy rather than creamy.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, mustard, ketchup, vinegar):
- Beansfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Sesamefits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, mustard, ketchup, vinegar. 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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