Name: Russian Salad
Ingredients: cooked vegetables (in equal proportion, cut into small dice, balls, or cubes); capers (to taste); pickled gherkins (cut into shreds); olives (for garnish); ½ cup oil; ⅓ cup vinegar; salt (to taste); pepper (to taste); optional: shreds of cold game, fowl, smoked salmon, lobster coral, anchovy, hard-boiled eggs, parsley, lettuce, celery tops, beet-root (for garnish)

Why it works: Capers and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,688 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

cooked vegetables (in equal proportion, cut into small dice, balls, or cubes)
capers (to taste)
pickled gherkins (cut into shreds)
olives (for garnish)
½ cup oil
⅓ cup vinegar
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
optional: shreds of cold game, fowl, smoked salmon, lobster coral, anchovy, hard-boiled eggs, parsley, lettuce, celery tops, beet-root (for garnish)

Directions

Combine all sorts of cooked vegetables in a bowl.
Add capers and pickled gherkins, and toss with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Arrange the salad on a serving dish.
Garnish with olives and any optional ingredients for a decorative effect.

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.

Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,688 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together470 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Capers + anchovytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together473 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together535 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked vegetables: Form the bulk of the salad and carry the dressing, providing body and texture.
Oil: Coats the vegetables, adding richness and a silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Capers: Add sharp, briny flavour that cuts through the richness of the oil.
Pickled gherkins: Contribute acidity and crunch, adding tangy contrast to the soft vegetables.

“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.