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Salad

Macedoine Salad

A salad of diced tomato, peas, string beans, celery, cucumber, beet, dressed with French dressing and served with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macedoine Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Select a pink, firm tomato and cut it into pieces the size of a thimble.

  2. Cut the string beans into 1-inch lengths.

  3. Cut the celery into even-sized pieces.

  4. Dice the cucumber.

  5. Cut the beet into pieces the size of the beans.

Marinate

  1. Place all vegetables in a bowl and marinate with French dressing.

  2. Keep the mixture in a cool place.

  3. Drain off the French dressing.

Serve

  1. Place the vegetables on crisp lettuce leaves.

  2. Serve with mayonnaise dressing.

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

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

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Beans + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together500 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato
Adds juicy body and acidity, giving the salad its fresh flavour and bulk.
Celery
Provides a crisp, crunchy texture that holds up through marinating.
Cucumber
Contributes cool, crisp moisture and a mild fresh flavour.
Beet
Adds earthy sweetness and a firm, tender bite among the other vegetables.
French peas
Adds sweetness and a tender texture that contrasts with the crisp vegetables.

The step that matters

Drain off the French dressing. Vegetables left swimming in dressing become soggy and diluted, so the excess should be drained before serving to keep the pieces crisp and the mayonnaise dressing clean-tasting.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, beans, celery, cucumber, lettuce):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, beans, celery, cucumber, 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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