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Salad

Onion Salad

A salad of thinly sliced onions soaked in water, seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, oil, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Onion Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel the onions and cover them with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then drain.

  3. Soak in cold water for 6-7 hours, changing the water frequently.

Dress and serve

  1. Slice the onions thinly and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Moisten slightly with vinegar and more liberally with oil.

  3. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Large mild onions
Form the main body of the salad and supply its mild, sweet flavour once soaked.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the onions a sharp, bright bite.
Oil
Coats the onion slices, adding fat and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Soaking the onions in cold water. Onions release sulfur compounds when cut that cause sharpness. Boiling and long soaking in changed water draw out these compounds and much of the harsh pungency, leaving a milder taste. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the salad harsh.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, parsley. 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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