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Salad

Mayonnaise of Fish

A mayonnaise dressing mixed with boiled fish and lettuce, served as a salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mayonnaise of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Mash the yolks of the eggs until smooth with the oil.

  2. Add the sugar, salt, mustard, and pepper, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add the vinegar, a few drops at a time.

  4. Set the dressing aside, covered.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut the fish into strips about an inch long and shred the lettuce.

  2. In a salad bowl, mix the fish and lettuce, then pour over the dressing.

  3. Garnish with rings of the egg whites and serve immediately.

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. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil to form a smooth, thick base for the dressing.
Oil
Provides fat and richness, forming the body of the emulsified dressing with the yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the rich oil and yolks.
Cold boiled fish
Forms the main protein, providing flavour and substance to the salad.
Lettuce
Provides crisp texture and a fresh base for the dressed fish.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar gradually. Adding vinegar a few drops at a time lets the oil and yolks emulsify slowly. Adding it too fast can break the dressing, leaving it oily and separated.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

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