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Salad

Sardine Salad

A salad of cubed sardines, olives, tomato jelly, hard boiled eggs, and mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Sardine Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sardines

  1. Remove skins and bones from the sardines and cut them into cubes.

  2. Arrange the sardine cubes on a platter with minced olives.

Make the tomato jelly

  1. Prepare tomato jelly by adding melted gelatine to the tomato pulp, seasoning with salt, pepper, and spices to taste.

  2. Create a border of tomato jelly around the sardines and olives.

Garnish and dress

  1. Garnish with hard boiled eggs and cover 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. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Olive + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Sardines
Provide the main fish body and savory flavor of the salad.
Gelatine
Sets the tomato pulp into a firm jelly that holds its shape.
Tomato pulp
Forms the jelly base and adds acidity and bright flavor.
Minced olives
Add briny, salty flavor that contrasts with the rich fish.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and creaminess, moistening and coating the salad.

The step that matters

Melting and adding the gelatine to the tomato pulp. Gelatine must be fully dissolved before it is mixed into the tomato pulp. Lumps or overheating can leave the jelly grainy or weak, so it may not set firmly enough to form the border.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, pepper, egg. 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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