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Vegetable Salad

A chilled vegetable salad set in aspic jelly with boiled eggs and salad dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 163 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil all the vegetables in separate pans until tender, adding a little baking soda to the water.

  2. Once cooked and cooled, slice the beetroot and potatoes into ½ inch thick rounds.

  3. Stamp out rounds the size of a shilling and arrange them alternately at the bottom of a border mold.

  4. Pour a little aspic jelly over the rounds to set them.

Build the mold

  1. When the aspic is firm, take lengths of asparagus heads.

  2. Dip the asparagus in liquid jelly.

  3. Arrange the asparagus around the sides of the mold.

  4. Fill the mold with the seasoned vegetables, adding salt, pepper, and salad oil.

  5. Pour in enough aspic jelly to set the mixture.

Unmold and serve

  1. When the aspic is firm, dip the mold in warm water.

  2. Turn the mold out onto a silver dish.

  3. Fill the center with the remaining seasoned vegetables.

  4. Pour over a little salad dressing.

  5. Garnish with chopped jelly and sliced 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. Cauliflower + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Beans + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together292 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beetroot + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together215 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Aspic jelly
Sets clear and firm around the vegetables so the mold holds its shape when turned out.
Potatoes
Provide a firm, starchy base that holds its shape when sliced and arranged in rounds.
Beetroot
Adds colour and an earthy sweetness to the rounds and the arranged layers.
Asparagus
Forms a decorative, tender layer around the sides of the mold.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm texture and a mild, rich flavour to the garnish.

The step that matters

Setting the aspic before adding the next layer. Each layer must be firm before the next is added, or the pieces shift and the mixture mixes into the jelly. Gelatin sets as it cools, so the aspic needs time to firm before unmolding.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, peas, beetroot, egg, beans, asparagus, pepper):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, peas, beetroot, egg, beans, asparagus, 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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