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Salads, Sauces, and Pickles

A salad of powdered hard-boiled eggs, mashed potatoes, onions, mustard, salt, olive oil, vinegar, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salads, Sauces, and Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Powder the hard-boiled eggs and set aside.

  2. Pass the boiled potatoes through a sieve for smoothness.

Make the salad

  1. Combine the eggs, potatoes, and chopped onions in a bowl.

  2. Add the mustard and salt, mixing well.

  3. Pour in the olive oil and vinegar, stirring to combine.

  4. Finally, add the anchovy sauce and mix thoroughly.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide body and a rich, creamy texture to the salad.
Boiled potatoes
Give the salad a smooth, binding base that holds the other ingredients together.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, helping the mixture feel smooth and creamy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar.
Anchovy sauce
Adds savory, salty depth that seasons the whole salad.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and vinegar. Pour them in gradually while stirring so the oil disperses into the mixture instead of separating. Mustard helps hold the emulsion together, keeping the dressing smooth and evenly distributed.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, onion, mustard, olive, vinegar, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, onion, mustard, olive, vinegar, anchovy, sauce. 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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