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Almond Salad

A salad of blanched almonds, raisins, celery, and mayonnaise served on lettuce leaves or apple cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Almond Salad

Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Almond Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and mix

  1. Chop the blanched almonds and celery.

  2. Mix the almonds, raisins, and celery together.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on lettuce leaves or in apple cups.

  2. Add the center of the apple cups to the salad if desired.

  3. Top with mayonnaise 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.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Almond + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Raisin + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds
Provide the main crunchy texture of the salad.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to balance the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, mild flavor.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and moisture, binding the salad and softening its texture.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, celery, lettuce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, celery, 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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