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Salad

Spinach and Egg Salad

A salad of young spinach leaves, spring onions, and hard-boiled eggs dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Spinach and Egg Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Wash the spinach to remove grit and dry it thoroughly.

  2. Mix the spinach with the chopped onions.

Dress and serve

  1. In a small bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Pour the dressing over the spinach and onions, and mix well.

  3. Transfer to a salad bowl and garnish with sections of hard-boiled egg.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Spinach + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Young spinach leaves
Forms the leafy base of the salad, providing bulk and a fresh, tender texture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add protein-rich body and a mild, creamy contrast to the sharp dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Oil
Carries flavour and coats the leaves, giving a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Drying the spinach thoroughly. Water left on the leaves dilutes the dressing so it slides off instead of clinging. Oil and vinegar do not mix with water, so drying well lets the dressing coat each leaf evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, egg, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, egg, vinegar, 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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