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Jellied Salmon Salad

A chilled salad of minced salmon set in gelatin, served on lettuce with olives and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Jellied Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove skin and bones from the salmon and mince it finely.

  2. Add lemon juice, a dash of red pepper, minced parsley, and salt to taste.

Set and serve

  1. Mix together and bind with prepared salad dressing and the gelatin dissolved in water.

  2. Fill small molds and set them on ice to chill quickly.

  3. Turn out onto crisp lettuce leaves and garnish with olives.

  4. Serve with mayonnaise.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 and provides its main flavour and texture.
Powdered gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the molds.
Prepared salad dressing
Binds the minced salmon and adds moisture and tang.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the salmon.

The step that matters

Fill small molds and set them on ice to chill quickly.. Gelatine sets only when cold enough, and chilling quickly keeps the salad firm and well shaped. If the mixture is still warm or chilled too slowly, it may stay soft and fail to hold its shape when turned out.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, lemon, parsley, pepper, olive. 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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