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Russian Salad

A salad of diced guinea fowl, potatoes, sardines, apple, capers, sausage, gherkins, mayonnaise, egg, and beetroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Russian Salad

Why it works: Capers and beetroot 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 ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick the meat from the guinea fowl and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Cut the cold boiled potatoes and sardines into small pieces.

  3. Mince the sour apple and capers finely.

  4. Slice the German sausage and pickled gherkins thinly.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine all ingredients in a dish and mix thoroughly.

  2. Just before serving, toss with Mayonnaise sauce.

  3. Garnish with hard-boiled egg and strips of boiled beetroot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Capers + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Potato + beetroottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

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

  3. Potato + caperstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Guinea fowl meat
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Boiled potatoes
Adds body and starch that soaks up the dressing.
Mayonnaise sauce
Binds the ingredients and adds richness and moisture.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and a crisp contrast to the rich dressing.
Pickled gherkins
Adds sharp acidity that balances the fatty mayonnaise.

The step that matters

Just before serving, toss with Mayonnaise sauce. Mayonnaise added too early lets the potatoes and apple release moisture, thinning the dressing and softening the texture. Tossing at the last moment keeps the salad creamy and the pieces intact.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, capers, sauce, egg, beetroot):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, capers, sauce, egg, beetroot. 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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