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Salad

Boiled Vegetable Salad

A salad of boiled asparagus, string beans, cow beans, lima beans, green peas, cauliflower, lettuce, dressed with French dressing and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and lima beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 156 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Boiled Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the vegetables until tender.

  2. Combine the left-over asparagus, string beans, cow beans, lima beans, green peas, and cauliflower in a bowl.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour French dressing over the vegetables and let sit for 30 minutes before serving.

  2. Add lettuce and mayonnaise dressing just 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beans + lima beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Asparagus + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together292 recipes

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

  4. Beans + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together500 recipes

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

  5. Lima beans + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

French dressing
Adds moisture and tangy flavour that soaks into the warm cooked vegetables.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and richness, giving the salad a creamy coating.
Lettuce
Adds crisp, fresh texture that contrasts with the tender cooked vegetables.
Cauliflower
Holds its shape after boiling, giving the salad firm, substantial pieces.

The step that matters

Adding the lettuce and mayonnaise dressing just before serving. Lettuce wilts and loses crispness once it sits in dressing, so adding it late keeps its texture. Mayonnaise-based dressing is also best added at the last moment so the salad stays creamy and cohesive.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, beans, peas, cauliflower, lettuce):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Lima beansthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, beans, peas, cauliflower, 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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