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Salad

Winter Salad

A chilled salad of sliced potatoes, beetroot, celery, seasoned with pepper and salt, dressed with salad dressing and optional parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Winter Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes and beetroot.

  2. Wash the celery and shred it into small pieces.

Assemble and serve

  1. Layer the ingredients in a salad bowl.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Pour over salad dressing and sprinkle with chopped parsley if desired.

  4. Wipe the sides of the bowl and mix well before serving.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Beetroot + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together745 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad and absorb dressing for a soft, hearty texture.
Pickled beetroot
Adds acidity and a sharp, tangy flavour that contrasts the starchy potatoes.
Celery
Contributes crisp, fresh crunch that balances the soft potatoes.
Salad dressing
Supplies moisture and fat that bind the salad and carry its flavour.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, potato, beetroot, pepper):

  1. Dillfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, potato, beetroot, pepper. 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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