Name: Salmon Salad
Ingredients: 1 can of salmon; 1 pint of finely chopped cabbage; salt to taste; mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Salmon and cabbage work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 94 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

1 can of salmon
1 pint of finely chopped cabbage
salt to taste
mayonnaise dressing

Directions

Drain the salmon and flake it into a bowl.
Add the finely chopped cabbage.
Season with salt to taste.
Mix in the mayonnaise dressing until well combined.

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.

Salmon + cabbagetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together94 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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.
Cabbage: Adds crisp texture and fresh bulk that contrasts with the soft salmon.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds moisture and richness and binds the salmon and cabbage together.

“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.