Name: Salade a LA Ihtsse
Ingredients: 1 cup cooked beetroot, diced; 1 cup cooked carrots, diced; ½ cup gherkins, diced; 1 cup cooked parsnips, diced; 2 tablespoons capers; ½ cup crayfish tails; ½ cup lobster meat or prawns, diced; 1 cup cooked cured meat (ham or tongue), diced; 1 cup tartare sauce

Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,096 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

1 cup cooked beetroot, diced
1 cup cooked carrots, diced
½ cup gherkins, diced
1 cup cooked parsnips, diced
2 tablespoons capers
½ cup crayfish tails
½ cup lobster meat or prawns, diced
1 cup cooked cured meat (ham or tongue), diced
1 cup tartare sauce

Directions

Make the salad

In a large bowl, combine the diced beetroot, carrots, gherkins, parsnips, capers, crayfish tails, lobster meat or prawns, and cooked cured meat. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.
Add the tartare sauce and mix until well combined.

Serve

Transfer the mixture to a salad bowl or set it in aspic jelly.
Garnish with small round balls of pressed Russian caviar and finely scraped horseradish 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.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,096 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beetroot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together143 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beetroot + caperstop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together231 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Beetroot + carrottop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together698 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Lobster + saucetop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,095 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

Crayfish tails: Provide the main seafood flavour and tender, meaty bite.
Lobster meat or prawns: Add sweet seafood flavour and a tender, delicate texture.
Cooked cured meat: Adds salty, savoury depth that balances the sweet vegetables.
Tartare sauce: Binds the salad with moisture and fat, adding creaminess and tang.
Gherkins: Contribute acidity and a crisp bite that cut through the richness.
Capers: Add sharp, briny acidity that brightens the salad.

Flavor stand-ins for the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beetroot, carrot, parsnip, crayfish, lobster, meat, sauce):

Celerybetter flavor fit
Parsleybetter flavor fit
Tarragonbetter flavor fit
Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beetroot, carrot, parsnip, crayfish, lobster, meat, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.