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Salads

A salad of beans, salt pork, potatoes, beet, turnip, carrot, onion, eggs, lettuce, dressed with oil, vinegar, milk, mustard, molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 526 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Salads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the beans and salt pork until tender.

  2. Peel and chop the potatoes, beet, turnip, carrot, and onion.

  3. Hard boil the eggs, then chop them.

Assemble and dress

  1. In a large bowl, combine all the vegetables and eggs.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, milk, mustard, salt, pepper, and molasses.

  3. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.

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. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beans + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together500 recipes

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

  4. Beans + turniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Eggs
Hard boiled and chopped, they add richness and body to the salad.
Oil
Adds fat and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the dressing and the sweet molasses.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil into the dressing.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth of colour to the dressing.

The step that matters

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. The dressing is a mix of oil, vinegar and milk, which separate if left standing. Whisk it well before adding, then toss gently so the chopped vegetables and eggs are evenly coated without being broken up.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pork, potato, turnip, carrot, egg, lettuce):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pork, potato, turnip, carrot, egg, lettuce. 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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