Name: Salmon Salad
Ingredients: 1 large can of salmon; 3 hard boiled eggs, yolks only; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 heaping tablespoon sugar; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons prepared mustard; ½ cup vinegar; whites of 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped very fine

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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

Prepare

Cut the salmon into small pieces.

Make the dressing

In a bowl, mix the yolks of the hard boiled eggs with the hot butter.
Add the sugar, salt, and mustard to the egg mixture and combine well.
Finally, add the vinegar and mix until well combined.

Combine

Fold in the chopped egg whites and the salmon.

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 + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,485 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Forms the bulk of the salad and supplies its main flavour and texture.
Egg yolks: Emulsify with the butter to give the dressing a smooth, rich body.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying the flavour of the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Egg whites: Add chopped texture and body to the salad.

Swap the mustard

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

Cucumberfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Mustardthe original
Asparagusfits about as well

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