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Salmon Salad

A salad of canned salmon, boiled eggs, celery or lettuce, dressed with lemon, mustard, vinegar, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Salmon Salad

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 the salmon

  1. Pour off the liquid from the salmon, remove bones, and break the salmon slightly with a fork.

  2. Squeeze lemon juice over the salmon.

Make the salad and dressing

  1. Chop the whites of the boiled eggs finely and add enough chopped celery or lettuce to match the bulk of the salmon.

  2. For the dressing, pulverize the yolks of the hard‑boiled eggs.

  3. Add the raw yolks, melted butter, salt, pepper, and mustard to the yolks.

  4. Stir in the liquid from the salmon, then add the vinegar, stirring well after each addition.

  5. Add the chopped egg whites and celery, and mix thoroughly.

  6. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir well.

  7. Add more vinegar if you prefer a thinner salad.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the bulk and flaky body of the salad.
Eggs
Yolks bind and enrich the dressing; cooked whites add body to the salad.
Raw egg yolks
Emulsify with butter and vinegar to give the dressing a thick, creamy texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the dressing stay smooth and creamy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and thins the dressing.
French mustard
Acts as an emulsifier that helps hold the dressing together.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar to the dressing. Vinegar should be added gradually, stirring well after each addition, so the egg yolk and butter emulsion stays smooth. Adding it all at once can cause the dressing to split or turn thin and watery.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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