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Salmon Salad Moulds

A chilled salmon salad molded into small shapes, served on lettuce with cucumber cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Salad Moulds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in a little water.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flaked salmon, lemon juice, parsley, Tabasco sauce, and enough cream salad dressing to moisten.

  3. Add the dissolved gelatin to the salmon mixture and combine well.

Mould and serve

  1. Fill small molds with the mixture and refrigerate until set.

  2. Turn out the molds onto lettuce leaves and serve with cucumber cream sauce.

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.

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. Lettuce + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Sauce + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked salmon
Forms the main body of the mould and provides the savoury flavour.
Granulated gelatin
Sets the salmon mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mould.
Cream salad dressing
Adds moisture and richness so the salmon mixture stays soft and creamy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the salmon.

The step that matters

Combine the dissolved gelatin evenly. Gelatin must be fully dissolved and mixed through the salmon before chilling. Lumps or uneven distribution leave soft or stiff patches, so the mould may not set uniformly or hold its shape when turned out.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, parsley, sauce, gelatin, cream, lettuce, cucumber):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, parsley, sauce, gelatin, cream, lettuce, cucumber. 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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