Name: Salmon Mayonnaise
Ingredients: 1 salmon cutlet; a few pickled gherkins; 4 tinned tomatoes; 2 hard-boiled eggs; 1 pint Tartare sauce

Why it works: Tomato and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,469 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salmon Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the center bones from the salmon cutlet and place it on a serving dish.
Slice 2 tomatoes and finely mince the gherkins.

Assemble and serve

Mix the sliced tomatoes and minced gherkins together and arrange them around the cutlet, with some on top.
Pour the Tartare sauce over the cutlet.
Garnish with the egg whites and the remaining drained tomatoes.

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.

Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,485 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Salmon + tomatotop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,439 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tomato + eggtop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,890 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon cutlet: Forms the main body of the dish and provides the flaky, rich flesh.
Tartare sauce: Adds moisture and a tangy, creamy richness over the fish.
Pickled gherkins: Add acidity and a crisp, sharp contrast to the rich fish and sauce.
Tinned tomatoes: Add moisture and gentle acidity around the cutlet.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add a mild, soft texture as a garnish.