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Salad

Fish Salad

A salad of boiled potatoes, salmon, egg yolks, seasoned with pepper, salt, mustard, cream, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and bones from the fish.

  2. Chop the boiled potatoes and mix them with the fish.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs smooth.

  2. Season the yolks with pepper, salt, and mustard.

  3. Add the cream and vinegar to the yolk mixture and stir well.

Assemble

  1. Pour the dressing over the fish and potatoes.

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. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Salmon
Provides the main protein and flaky body of the salad.
Potatoes
Add starchy bulk that soaks up dressing and gives the salad substance.
Egg yolks
Mashed smooth, they emulsify with the cream to form a rich, creamy dressing.
Cream
Adds fat and softness, mellowing the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Smoothing the egg yolks. Yolks must be rubbed fully smooth before adding cream and vinegar; lumps stay lumpy because yolk fat and proteins bind unevenly, so the dressing can turn grainy rather than creamy.

Swap the potato

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

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

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