Name: Salmon Salad
Ingredients: 1 can of salmon (or equivalent cold fish, preferably boiled or baked); 3 large boiled potatoes; 3 hard-boiled egg yolks; Mustard, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Coarse sea salt, to taste; 2 tablespoons cream; ½ cup vinegar; Lettuce leaves, for serving

Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the skin and bones from the salmon or cold fish.
Chop the boiled potatoes and mix them with the fish.

Make the dressing

Rub the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs smooth.
Season the yolks with mustard, pepper, and salt.
Add the cream and vinegar to the yolk mixture and stir well.
Pour the dressing over the fish and potatoes.

Serve

Serve the salad on its own or create a nest with lettuce leaves and place the fish and potatoes inside, or arrange the lettuce around the dish.

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 + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,356 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,340 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together322 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 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

Salmon: Provides the main protein and flaky body of the salad.
Boiled potatoes: Add starchy bulk and a soft texture that absorbs the dressing.
Egg yolks: Mashed smooth, they form the creamy base that binds the dressing.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, loosening the yolk mixture into a dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk and cream dressing.

Swap the potato

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

Horseradishfits better
Cucumberfits better
Chivefits better
Potatothe original

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