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Salad

Salmon and Cucumber Salad

A chilled salad of flaked boiled salmon, cucumber slices, onion, pepper, sea salt, lemon juice, tartar sauce, served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce 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 and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Flake the hot boiled salmon into small pieces.

  2. Sprinkle with lemon juice, minced onion, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Chill on ice for several hours.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix the salmon lightly with the thinly sliced cucumbers.

  2. Cover with tartar sauce and serve on a bed of lettuce.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled salmon
Forms the main body of the salad and provides its protein-rich flakes.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and a cool, fresh moisture to the salad.
Tartar sauce
Adds creamy richness and fat that binds the salad together.
Onion
Contributes sharp, aromatic flavour that cuts through the richness of the fish.

The step that matters

Chill on ice for several hours. Chilling firms the flaked salmon and lets the lemon juice and seasonings penetrate, so the salad tastes seasoned and holds its texture rather than becoming soft or watery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, lemon, pepper, cucumber, sauce, lettuce):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, lemon, pepper, cucumber, sauce, lettuce. 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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