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Herring Salad

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 231 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Herring Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the herrings in water or milk for 3 hours to remove the odor.

  2. Remove heads and tails, gut, skin, and wash the herrings.

  3. Cut the herring flesh into small cubes and set aside.

  4. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small cubes.

  5. Add the apples, gherkins, and optional beetroot and capers to the herring.

  6. If using milt, moisten it with vinegar and rub into a paste to pour over the salad before dressing.

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 + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Apple + beetroottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together233 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + beetroottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + appletop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,884 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Vinegar + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the beetroot

The recipe marks beetroot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, apple, capers):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Beetrootthe original
  4. Horseradishfits about as well

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

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