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Salmon for a Luncheon

A salmon salad with a creamy egg yolk, potato, butter, mustard, and vinegar dressing, garnished with nasturtium.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon for a Luncheon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the liquid from the can of salmon.

  2. Place the salmon on a dish, breaking it into small pieces.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, potatoes, butter, mustard, and salt, and mix until smooth.

  2. Add vinegar gradually until the mixture reaches a cream-like consistency.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spoon the dressing over the salmon in dollops.

  2. Arrange the egg whites around the dish.

  3. Garnish with nasturtium leaves and blossoms.

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. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main protein and flaky body of the salad.
Mealy potatoes
Their starch breaks down when mashed, giving the dressing a smooth, thick body.
Egg yolks
Their fat and emulsifying lecithin help bind the butter and mustard into a smooth dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the dressing's texture and flavour.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps stabilise the emulsified dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and thins it to a cream-like consistency.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar gradually. Vinegar must be added slowly so the emulsion of yolk, butter and mustard can absorb it. Adding it all at once can thin the dressing too much or cause it to split, so the cream consistency is lost.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, potato, butter, vinegar, cream):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, potato, butter, vinegar, cream. 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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