Name: Salmon, Baked
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons ketchup; ½ cup vinegar; 1 teaspoon made mustard; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salmon, Baked

Ingredients

Directions

Mix ketchup, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
Rub the yolks of eggs through a fine sieve and add to the mixture.
Stir in the salad oil gradually until well combined.
Use the egg whites for garnishing.
Serve as a dressing for cold meat salads.

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 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).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ketchup + mustardtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together331 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ketchup + vinegartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).