Name: Salmon Salad
Ingredients: 1 pound salmon; 1 pound celery; 1 cup butter, softened; 1 tablespoon mustard; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 1 teaspoon salt; 4 hard-boiled egg yolks; ½ cup vinegar

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

Chop the salmon and celery into small pieces.

Make the dressing

In a bowl, cream the softened butter.
Add the mustard, sugar, lemon juice, and salt to the butter and mix well.
Mash the hard-boiled egg yolks and stir them into the mixture.
Finally, stir in the vinegar and pour the dressing over the chopped salmon and celery.

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.

Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,816 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Forms the main body of the salad and provides its protein and flavor.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch to the salad.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, creamy base to the dressing.
Egg yolks: Thicken and enrich the dressing, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the butter.

Swap the celery

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

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Celerythe original

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