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Salad

French Salad

A salad of anchovies, shallot, parsley, vinegar, oil, mustard, and sliced roast or boiled meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

French Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Chop the anchovies, shallot, and parsley finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped ingredients with vinegar, oil, mustard, and salt.

Add the meat

  1. Mix well, then gradually add thin slices of cold roast or boiled meat, shaking to coat each piece.

  2. Continue adding meat in small batches, ensuring each is well coated before adding more.

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. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Their salty, savory depth seasons the dressing and builds its flavor base.
Shallot
Adds a sharp, mild onion aroma and bite to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, rich body.
Mustard
Its emulsifying compounds help bind the oil and vinegar into a smoother dressing.
Cold roast or boiled meat
Forms the main substance of the salad, absorbing the dressing as it is tossed.

The step that matters

Coat the meat in small batches. Adding too much meat at once leaves some slices undressed and others swimming in dressing. Coating in small batches lets the dressing cling evenly to each piece.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, vinegar, mustard, meat. 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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