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Salad

Russian Salad

A cold salad of pickled vegetables, herring, smoked salmon, apples, meats, mayonnaise, and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Russian Salad

Why it works: Mustard and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 624 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Cut pickled cucumbers, mustard pickles, pickled beans, and capers into very small lengths.

  2. Soak 6 herrings in water for 24 hours. Skin and debone the herrings, then cut them into small pieces.

  3. Cut ½ pound of smoked salmon into lengths.

  4. Chop 6 large apples finely.

  5. Grate 1 onion.

  6. Add desired amount of cold roast veal, chicken, or turkey.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Pour a rich mayonnaise dressing over the salad mixture.

  3. Line a salad bowl with lettuce leaves.

  4. Fill the bowl with the salad.

  5. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs, nuts, capers, and decorative aspic figures.

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. Mustard + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cucumber + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  5. Beans + caperstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
Provide the main savoury fish body and firm, flaky texture in the salad.
Smoked salmon
Adds smoky, rich flavour and a silky texture to the mixed salad.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and creaminess that binds the chopped ingredients together and moistens them.
Apples
Contribute crisp texture and gentle sweetness that balances the salty, sour pickles.
Pickled cucumbers
Add acidity and a crisp, tangy bite that cuts through the rich dressing.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and soft texture as a garnish that complements the dressing.

The step that matters

Soaking the herrings for 24 hours. Soaking draws out excess salt from cured herring, so the fish tastes mild rather than overly salty and blends well with the other ingredients.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, mustard, beans, capers, salmon, onion, veal):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, mustard, beans, capers, salmon, onion, veal. 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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