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Salad

German Salad

A cold salad of shredded meat, boiled potato, beetroot, pickled cabbage, and a vinaigrette of white wine, salad oil, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 184 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

German Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

  1. In a bowl, combine the shredded meat, onion, gherkin, pickled red cabbage, beetroot, and boiled potato.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the white wine, salad oil, and tarragon vinegar.

  3. Pour the dressing over the salad mixture and mix well.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the salad in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Before serving, garnish with sections of hard-boiled egg.

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. Beetroot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + beetroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

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

  4. Beetroot + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

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

  5. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled shredded meat
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides savory, protein-rich body.
Salad oil
Carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, coating richness.
White wine
Adds acidity and a mild fruity note to the dressing.
Tarragon vinegar
Brings sharp acidity that balances the fat and sweetness of the vegetables.
Boiled potato
Adds starchy body that soaks up the dressing and holds the salad together.
Beetroot
Contributes earthy sweetness and a vivid color to the salad.

The step that matters

Chill the salad for 3 to 4 hours. Chilling lets the acidic dressing penetrate the potato and meat, so the flavors meld. Serving too soon leaves the salad tasting sharp and disconnected.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, beetroot, potato, white wine, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, beetroot, potato, white wine, tarragon, vinegar. 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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