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Salad

Normandy Salad

A salad of peas, walnuts, lettuce, nasturtiums, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 491 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Normandy Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the peas in cold water, then drain and dry on a towel.

  2. Blanch the walnuts in boiling water for a few minutes, then chop into small pieces.

Assemble

  1. Sprinkle the walnuts with salt and mix with enough mayonnaise to hold together.

  2. Arrange the mixture on lettuce leaves, placing nasturtiums between the leaves.

  3. Cover the nuts and peas with the remaining mayonnaise.

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. Walnut + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together491 recipes

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

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  3. Peas + walnuttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise
Binds the walnuts and adds moisture and richness to the salad.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a rich, slightly oily flavour that contrasts with the soft peas.
French peas
Provide a soft, sweet texture and bright colour throughout the salad.
Lettuce
Forms the cool, crisp base that holds the salad.

The step that matters

Binding with mayonnaise. Mayonnaise must be added in an amount that binds the walnuts without making them wet. Too little leaves the mixture crumbly, while too much makes it loose and soggy on the lettuce.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, lettuce):

  1. Cashew nutfits better
  2. Brazil nutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, lettuce. 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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