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Salad

White Salad

A chilled salad of shredded cabbage, pineapple, marshmallows, almonds, and a creamy lemon‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit mixture

  1. Mix the cabbage, pineapple, marshmallows, and almonds in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. Combine lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, and flour in a double boiler.

  2. Stir constantly until thick.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg white.

  5. Chill the mixture.

Combine and serve

  1. Fold in the whipped cream and mix with the cabbage mixture.

  2. Serve cold.

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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pineapple + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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

Egg white
Stiffly beaten, it adds lightness and airy body to the cooled dressing.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the lemon dressing as it cooks in the double boiler.
Whipping cream
Adds richness and a creamy texture when folded in.
Marshmallows
Add softness and sweetness that blend into the salad.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that balances the sugar and sweetness of the dressing.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until thick. Flour thickens only when heated while stirred; if the dressing sits still or runs too hot, it can lump or scorch, leaving a grainy, uneven sauce.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, almond, lemon, flour, vinegar, egg, sugar):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, almond, lemon, flour, vinegar, egg, sugar. 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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