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Salad

Fish Salad

A chilled salad of flaked fish, hard‑boiled eggs, anchovies, beetroot, lettuce, dressed with oil, vinegar, pepper, salt and sharp dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 678 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove all bone and skin from the fish and flake it.

  2. Dust the fish with pepper and coarse sea salt, then drizzle with oil and vinegar.

  3. Arrange the flaked fish in a circle on a round dish.

Prepare the salad

  1. Peel the beetroot and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Wash, dry, and break the lettuce into small pieces.

  3. Pour the dressing over the lettuce and place it in the center of the fish circle.

Finish the dish

  1. Wash and fillet the anchovies, then arrange them in a pattern around the border of the fish.

  2. Decorate the edge of the fish with the best leaves of the 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. Beetroot + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  3. Pepper + beetroottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,682 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Forms the main body of the salad and provides its protein and flavour.
Hard boiled eggs
Add a firm, mild texture and richness to the salad.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that seasons the fish and dressing.
Lettuces
Provide a crisp, fresh base that holds the dressing and contrasts the fish.
Beetroot
Adds earthy sweetness and a bright colour to the salad.

Swap the beetroot

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, pepper, 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.

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