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Salad

Vegetable Salad, Mixed

A salad of cauliflower, beetroot, cucumber, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, dressed with mayonnaise or salad dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 678 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vegetable Salad, Mixed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Divide the cauliflower into small sprouts.

  2. Cut the beetroot and potatoes into fine strips.

  3. Slice the cucumber and tomatoes.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place all ingredients in layers in a salad bowl, piling somewhat high in the center.

  2. Season each layer with salt and pepper.

  3. Pour the mayonnaise sauce or salad dressing over the salad.

  4. Garnish with a border of well-washed and dried lettuce.

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 + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together678 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Beetroot + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together345 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Provides crisp, firm bulk and a mild texture that holds its shape under dressing.
Cooked beetroot
Adds earthy sweetness and a vivid colour to the layers.
Cooked potatoes
Give starchy body and a soft, filling texture that balances the crisp vegetables.
Tomatoes
Contribute juiciness and a gentle acidity that brightens the salad.
Mayonnaise sauce or salad dressing
Adds fat and creaminess, moistening the vegetables and carrying the seasoning.

The step that matters

Piling the layers high in the center. Seasoning each layer keeps salt distributed through the salad, since salt dissolves and spreads only slowly through raw and cooked vegetables. Dressing poured over last coats mainly the top, so the seasoned layers below keep the flavour evenly through the mound.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, beetroot, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, sauce, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, beetroot, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, sauce, 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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