Name: Fleisch Salat — Cold Meat Salad
Ingredients: Any kind of cold meat (beef or mutton); 1 onion, finely chopped; Pickles (beans, gherkins, or beetroot) in vinegar, chopped; 1 boiled carrot, chopped; Pepper to taste; Salad dressing No. 2 (to moisten); Celery, watercress, or red pickle of cabbage or beetroot for garnish

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Fleisch Salat — Cold Meat Salad

Ingredients

Any kind of cold meat (beef or mutton)
1 onion, finely chopped
Pickles (beans, gherkins, or beetroot) in vinegar, chopped
1 boiled carrot, chopped
Pepper to taste
Salad dressing No. 2 (to moisten)
Celery, watercress, or red pickle of cabbage or beetroot for garnish

Directions

Prepare

Cut the cold meat into very small slices or dice.
Finely chop the onion and pickles, and chop the boiled carrot.

Mix and serve

Mix the meat with the onion, pickles, and carrot.
Add pepper and enough salad dressing to moisten the mixture.
Let it stand for half an hour before serving.
Garnish with celery, watercress, or red pickle.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,443 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,159 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat: Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main savoury flavour.
Onion: Adds sharpness and aroma that cut through the richness of the meat.
Pickles: Add acidity and tang from the vinegar, brightening the mixture.
Boiled carrot: Adds soft texture and mild sweetness to the mixture.
Salad dressing: Moistens the chopped ingredients so the salad holds together without being dry.

The step that matters

Dicing the meat finely. Very small, even pieces let the dressing coat every bite and give the salad a uniform texture. Large chunks stay dry in the centre and make the salad uneven to eat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, beans, carrot, pepper, celery):

Parsnipfits better
Capsicumfits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beans, carrot, pepper, celery. 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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Fleisch Salat — Cold Meat Salad