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Salad

French Salad

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Prepare the dressing

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

  2. Combine them in a bowl with vinegar, oil, mustard, and salt.

Assemble and rest

  1. Mix well and gradually add thin slices of cold roast or boiled meat, no longer than 3 inches.

  2. Shake the meat in the seasoning and add more as needed.

  3. Cover the bowl and let the salad sit for 3 hours before serving.

  4. Garnish with parsley and a few slices of fat.

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
Add a salty, savoury depth that flavours the whole dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Oil
Adds fat and carries flavour through the dressing and onto the meat.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar.
Shallot
Contributes a mild, sharp onion flavour to the dressing.

The step that matters

Shake the meat in the seasoning. Meat absorbs dressing gradually, so it needs thorough coating and tasting before serving. Adding seasoning in stages lets you adjust salt and acidity without overpowering the meat, which can taste bland if under-dressed.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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