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Veal Salad

A salad of boiled veal mixed with celery and dressed with a custard-like sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Veal Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Boil the veal until tender.

  2. Chop the veal and mix with the chopped celery (or cabbage and celery salt).

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the eggs, vinegar, red pepper, French mustard, sweet or sour cream, salad oil or butter, sugar, and salt.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring until thick like custard.

Assemble

  1. Pour the dressing over the veal and celery mixture.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the salad as tender, chopped meat.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it a custard-like body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the rich cream.
Sweet or sour cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the dressing smooth and creamy.
French mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma that complements the acidity of the vinegar.
Celery
Contributes crunch and a fresh, mildly savory flavor to the salad.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat. Eggs set when heated, so low heat with constant stirring thickens the dressing smoothly. High heat can scramble the eggs and leave lumps.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, celery, egg, vinegar, pepper, cream, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, celery, egg, vinegar, pepper, cream, butter. 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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