Name: Salmon Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 can of salmon, bones removed; 2 tablespoons crisp pickles; 3 hard boiled eggs; 1 teaspoon mustard; juice of 1 lemon; 1 tablespoon melted butter; 1 tablespoon vinegar; thin slices of buttered bread

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

Chop the salmon, pickles, and hard boiled eggs together.
Add mustard, lemon juice, melted butter, and vinegar; mix thoroughly.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between very thin slices of buttered bread.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,816 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Provides the main body and flavor of the filling.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Melted butter: Adds fat and moisture, giving the filling a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the salmon and balances the richness.
Vinegar: Adds sharp acidity that cuts through the fat and sharpens the flavor.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, mustard, butter, vinegar, bread):

Avocadofits about as well
Lemonthe original
Plumfits about as well
Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, mustard, butter, vinegar, bread. 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.