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Salmon Salad

A salad of canned salmon with potatoes, eggs, onion, celery, and a creamy mustard dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Salmon Salad

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the salmon, boiled potatoes, hard boiled eggs, onion, and celery.

Make the dressing

  1. In a double boiler, mix sugar, mustard, flour, salt, cream, vinegar, egg, butter, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Cook the dressing in the double boiler until it thickens.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the salmon mixture and toss gently to combine.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the dressing, giving it body so it clings to the salad.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the tang of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the dressing.
Potatoes
Add bulk and a soft, starchy texture to the salad.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing in the double boiler. Egg and flour thicken the dressing gently over indirect heat. Too much heat can scramble the egg, leaving lumps and a grainy sauce instead of a smooth one.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, potato, egg, celery, sugar, mustard, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, potato, egg, celery, sugar, mustard, flour. 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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