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Salad

Red Salad

A salad of diced beets, potatoes, veal or pork or chicken, apple, celery, pickle, dressed with oil, vinegar, cayenne, mustard, onion juice, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,169 recipes mention both. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Red Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the beets, potatoes, veal (or pork or chicken), apple, celery, and pickle.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, cayenne, mustard, onion juice, and salt to create the dressing.

  3. Pour the dressing over the salad mixture and toss to combine.

Arrange and garnish

  1. Arrange the salad on a large plate, marking out a star shape with a knife.

  2. Outline the star with parsley and fill in the points with the yolks and whites of eggs, beets, potatoes, and cresses or minced sardine.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beets
Provide earthy sweetness and the main colour of the salad.
Potatoes
Add bulk and a soft, starchy body that soaks up the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the oil.
Oil
Carries flavour and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Mustard
Adds sharp heat and helps the oil and vinegar stay emulsified.
Apple
Adds crisp texture and a mild sweetness that contrasts the vinegar.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, veal, celery, vinegar, pepper, mustard, onion):

  1. Limebetter flavor fit
  2. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  3. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, veal, celery, vinegar, pepper, mustard, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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