Skip to main content
Main

Salmon Salad with Cucumber Sauce

A chilled salmon salad served with a creamy cucumber sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon Salad with Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove skin and bones from the salmon.

  2. Scald the salmon with hot water.

  3. Dry and flake the salmon.

Make the custard

  1. Mix salt, sugar, flour, dry mustard, and cayenne in a bowl.

  2. Beat in egg yolks, melted butter, vinegar, and milk until combined.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thick.

  4. Stir in dissolved gelatin and flaked salmon.

  5. When it begins to set, fill individual molds and refrigerate.

Make the cucumber sauce

  1. Beat the cream until stiff.

  2. Add coarse sea salt, pepper, and vinegar gradually to the cream.

  3. Peel and finely chop the cucumber.

  4. Drain the cucumber.

  5. Mix the cucumber into the cream.

Serve

  1. Serve the salmon salad surrounded by cucumber sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the body of the salad, providing the main substance and flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard base and add richness as they cook.
Gelatin
Sets the salmon mixture so it holds its shape in the molds.
Cream
Whipped to stiffness, it gives the cucumber sauce a light, airy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the custard base.
Cucumber
Adds fresh flavor and crunch to the cream sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken gently with indirect heat. Too much heat can scramble them, leaving lumps and an uneven set in the final salad.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, sugar, flour, pepper, egg, butter, milk):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, sugar, flour, pepper, egg, butter, milk. 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.

You might also like

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipesSmoked SalmonSmoked Salmon14 recipes