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Salad

Salmon Salad

A salad of shredded fresh salmon, lettuce, hard‑boiled eggs, and a mustard‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Salmon Salad

Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oil from the salmon and shred it into small pieces.

  2. Pick the lettuce and mix it with the salmon using a fork.

  3. Chop the hard-boiled eggs and add them to the mixture.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and add salt, pepper, sugar, mustard, butter, and red pepper.

  2. Stir in the vinegar and place the bowl in a kettle of hot water, stirring until thickened.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once cold, thin the dressing with cream and pour it over the salmon and lettuce.

  2. Garnish with rings of hard-boiled egg on top and serve.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set gently when heated, giving it body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the rich salmon and yolks.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the dressing smooth and rich.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
Salmon
Provides the main protein and flavour of the salad.

The step that matters

Thickening the dressing over hot water. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the heat is too high they scramble. Gentle, steady stirring over hot water sets the dressing smoothly.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Lettucethe original

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