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German Salad

A chilled salad of shredded boiled beef, onion, gherkin, pickled red cabbage, beetroot, potato, dressed with white wine, salad oil, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 184 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

German Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

  1. In a bowl, combine the beef, onion, gherkin, red cabbage, beetroot, and potato.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the white wine, salad oil, and tarragon vinegar.

  3. Pour the dressing over the salad mixture and mix well.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the salad in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Garnish with sections of hard-boiled egg 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. Beetroot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + beetroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

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

  4. Beetroot + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled beef
Provides the main body and protein of the salad.
Salad oil
Carries flavor and adds richness to the dressing, coating the other ingredients.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
White wine
Adds liquid and mild acidity to the dressing.
Beetroot
Adds earthy sweetness and a deep color to the salad.
Potato
Adds soft body and absorbs some of the dressing.

The step that matters

Chilling the salad. Chilling for several hours lets the dressing soak into the potato, beef and beetroot, so the flavors blend. Serving it too soon leaves the dressing sitting on top and the flavors flat.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, beetroot, potato, white wine, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, beetroot, potato, white wine, tarragon, 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.

More german salad recipes

Dressing 5 See all 4 →

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