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Salad

Salmon Salad

A salad of fresh salmon and chopped celery dressed with mustard, vinegar, egg yolks, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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. Chop the celery as you would for chicken salad.

  2. Mix the chopped celery with the fresh salmon.

Make the dressing and serve

  1. In a bowl, combine the mustard, vinegar, egg yolks, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Mix the dressing thoroughly and add it to the salmon just before serving.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 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
Bind the dressing into a smooth, creamy emulsion that coats the salmon and celery.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks.
Mustard
Helps emulsify the dressing and adds a sharp, savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Add the dressing just before serving. Acid and salt in the dressing draw moisture out of the celery and can soften the salmon if it sits too long, so the salad loses crispness and texture. Adding it at the last moment keeps the celery crisp and the salmon intact.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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