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Salad

Salmon Salad

Salmon salad with a creamy mustard vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Salmon Salad

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix vinegar, butter, mustard, cayenne pepper, salt, sugar, and eggs.

  2. Chill the mixture, then add cream and stir well.

Serve

  1. Garnish the salmon with lettuce.

  2. Pour the dressing over the salmon before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 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

Eggs
Thicken the dressing and add richness as they set gently.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cream
Adds richness and body, making the dressing smoother and milder.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the dressing its tangy bite.
California salmon
Serves as the main protein, providing flavor and flaky texture.

The step that matters

Chill the egg mixture before adding cream. Eggs cooked or thickened too fast can scramble or curdle. Chilling the mixture before adding cream helps keep the dressing smooth and stable.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, butter, pepper, sugar, egg, cream. 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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