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Salad

Celeri a LA Waldorf

A salad of julienned celery and apples dressed with mayonnaise, mustard, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Celeri a LA Waldorf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and wash the celery, then cut the heart portions into fine julienne strips.

  2. Soak the celery strips in acidulated water until needed.

  3. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into julienne strips.

Assemble and serve

  1. Drain the celery and mix it with the apple strips.

  2. Season with mayonnaise flavored with mustard and enriched with whipped cream.

  3. Serve on a hors-d’oeuvre 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.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Apple + mustardtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together853 recipes

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

  4. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Mustard + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,935 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Provides the crisp, fibrous texture that gives the salad its crunch.
Apples
Add crisp texture and a tart flavor that balances the rich dressing.
Mayonnaise
Supplies fat and creaminess that bind the celery and apple together.
Whipped cream
Lightens the dressing and adds softness and volume to the mayonnaise.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the dressing.

The step that matters

Soak the celery strips in acidulated water until needed. Acidulated water slows browning and keeps the cut celery and apple crisp and pale, while the acid also adds a mild tang.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, mustard, cream. 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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