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Salmon Salad

A salad of canned salmon topped with lettuce and dressed with a creamy vinaigrette made from vinegar, butter, mustard, salt, sugar, eggs, and cream.

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

Why it works: Lettuce and mustard 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 ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Carefully remove the salmon from the can without breaking it.

  2. Garnish the salmon with lettuce.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, butter, mustard, salt, sugar, and eggs.

  2. Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens like cream, avoiding boiling.

  3. Once cooled, stir in the cream.

Serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the salmon and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook gently and set into a creamy custard.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the rich dressing and the fish.
Cream
Adds richness and a soft, smooth texture when stirred into the cooled dressing.
Salmon
Provides the main protein and flavor of the salad.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat without boiling. Egg proteins set gently at moderate heat; boiling or overheating can curdle the eggs, leaving the dressing grainy instead of smooth and thickened.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, butter, mustard, sugar, egg, 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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