Name: Salmon Salad
Ingredients: 1 small can of salmon; 3 bunches of celery, chopped fine; 2 teaspoons mustard; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 2 egg yolks; salt to taste; cayenne pepper to taste; lettuce for garnish

Why it works: Mustard and lettuce 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

In a bowl, mix the chopped celery with the salmon.
In a separate bowl, combine mustard, vinegar, egg yolks, salt, and cayenne pepper.

Assemble and serve

Mix the dressing into the salmon and celery mixture.
Serve in a salad dish, garnished with lettuce.

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.

Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,356 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + vinegartop 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: Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and a flaky texture.
Celery: Adds crunch and freshness that contrasts with the soft salmon.
Egg yolks: Emulsify with the vinegar and mustard to bind the dressing and make it creamy.
Mustard: Adds sharpness and helps the egg yolks emulsify into a stable dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the salmon and balances the richness of the yolks.

Swap the celery

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

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Celerythe original

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