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Salad

Russian Salad

A salad of diced meat, potatoes, sardines, apple, capers, sausage, gherkins, and mayonnaise, garnished with egg and beetroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Russian Salad

Why it works: Capers and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 231 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick meat from the guinea fowl and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Cut the cold boiled potatoes and sardines into small pieces.

  3. Mince the sour apple, capers, German sausage, and pickled gherkins finely.

Mix and serve

  1. Mix all ingredients in a dish thoroughly.

  2. Just before serving, toss the mixture with mayonnaise sauce.

  3. Garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg and strips of boiled beetroot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Capers + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Potato + beetroottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

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

  3. Potato + caperstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + beetroottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together233 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise sauce
Coats the chopped pieces, adding richness and moisture to the salad.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and crisp texture that balance the rich mayonnaise.
Pickled gherkins
Contribute sharp acidity and a crunchy bite.
Cold boiled potatoes
Provide bulk and a soft, starchy body to the salad.
Cooked meat
Supplies the main protein and substantial texture to the salad.

The step that matters

Toss with mayonnaise just before serving. Mayonnaise is an emulsion that can thin, separate or make the potatoes and apple watery if left standing, so dressing it at the last moment keeps the texture firm and creamy.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, capers, sauce, egg, beetroot):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, capers, sauce, egg, beetroot. 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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