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Salad

Salmon Salad

A salad of salmon, cabbage, cucumber pickles, boiled eggs, dressed with vinegar, pepper, sea salt, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Salmon Salad

Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the salmon, chopped cabbage, cucumber pickles, and hard-boiled eggs in a large bowl.

  2. Heat the vinegar until scalding, then season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and mustard to taste.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the salad ingredients and mix well.

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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 texture of the salad.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and creamy richness to the salad.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that flavors the salad and softens the cabbage slightly.
Hard cabbage
Gives crisp texture and bulk to the salad.

The step that matters

Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the salad ingredients. The vinegar must be scalding so the flavors distribute and the cabbage begins to soften. Mixing well ensures every piece is evenly seasoned and coated.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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