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Salad

Salmon Salad

A salad of canned salmon mixed with celery, pickles, parsley, and a mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Salmon Salad

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove all small bones from the salmon and mash it with a fork.

  2. Mix in the chopped celery, sweet pickles, and parsley.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar, water, and sugar until the sugar dissolves.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg and mustard together thoroughly.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture into the egg mixture while constantly stirring.

  4. Return the mixture to the heat and cook until it thickens.

  5. Stir in the butter and let it cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the mayonnaise over the salmon mixture and serve on lettuce leaves.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the vinegar dressing as it cooks and binds it into a smooth custard-like sauce.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that flavours the dressing and balances the sweetness.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour and helps emulsify the egg dressing.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's acidity, adding sweetness to the dressing.
Salmon
Forms the main body of the salad, providing flaky texture and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Pour the hot vinegar mixture into the egg mixture while constantly stirring. Adding hot liquid to egg too quickly or without stirring can scramble the egg into lumps. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the egg warms gently and the sauce thickens smoothly when returned to the heat.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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