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Game-salad

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,370 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Game-salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Divide the game into joints or pieces, removing skin and bones as much as possible.

  2. Season the game, then pour over oil and vinegar. Keep in a cool place for a few hours.

  3. Mince fresh, well-washed lettuce, season, and thicken with a little mayonnaise sauce.

  4. Place the lettuce on the center of a cold dish.

  5. Arrange the pieces of game in a pyramid on top of the lettuce.

  6. Mask the game with a layer of mayonnaise mixed with eggs.

  7. Surround the dish with halves of hard-boiled eggs.

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. Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pheasant + lettucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  4. Lettuce + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Vinegar + saucetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,844 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, vinegar, sauce, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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