Name: Salad of Cold Meat
Ingredients: 1 pound cooked meat (roasted, boiled, or stewed); 3 shallots, finely chopped; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon chopped tarragon; 1 teaspoon chopped chervil; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 6 tablespoons salad oil; 2 tablespoons vinegar

Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Salad of Cold Meat

Ingredients

1 pound cooked meat (roasted, boiled, or stewed)
3 shallots, finely chopped
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon chopped tarragon
1 teaspoon chopped chervil
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons salad oil
2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions

Prepare

Cut the meat into slices about the size of a half-crown, including some fat.
Place the meat on a dish.

Dress and serve

Add the chopped shallots, parsley, tarragon, chervil, salt, and pepper.
Pour the salad oil and vinegar over the mixture.
Toss gently without breaking the meat.
Serve in a salad bowl or on another dish.

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.

Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together824 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together266 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,563 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat: Forms the body of the salad and carries the dressing; the fat adds richness and flavour.
Shallots: Add a mild, sharp onion flavour that cuts through the richness of the meat.
Salad oil: Coats the meat and herbs, carrying flavour and keeping the slices moist.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Toss gently without breaking the meat. Cut meat fibres and surfaces break down easily and release juices, so gentle folding keeps the slices intact and moist while the dressing coats them evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, shallot, tarragon, chervil, pepper, vinegar):

Capersfits better
Parsleythe original
Thymefits about as well
Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, shallot, tarragon, chervil, pepper, 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.

Chicken Salad623 recipes

Salad Dressing491 recipes

Tomato Salad179 recipes

Cold Slaw160 recipes

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Salad of Cold Meat