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Salad

Salmon Salad

A salad of lettuce, canned salmon, egg yolks, olive oil, sugar, mustard, salt, vinegar, garnished with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. Wash the lettuce and let it drain.

  2. Trim ¾ inch off the outer edge of the lettuce leaves and set aside.

  3. Chop the remaining lettuce leaves and mix them with the salmon.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the yolks of 4 hard-boiled eggs and 2 raw egg yolks with olive oil, sugar, mustard, salt, and vinegar until smooth.

Assemble

  1. Place the mixture in a dish and pour the dressing over it.

  2. Arrange the outer lettuce leaves in a circle around the salad.

  3. Slice the hard-boiled egg whites into rings and place them on top.

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. Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and vinegar to make the dressing thick and smooth.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add body and richness to the dressing as they blend smoothly.
Olive oil
Adds fat and silky texture to the dressing.
Vinegar
Brings acidity that balances the rich yolks and salmon.
Lettuce
Provides crisp, watery texture and the base for the salad.

The step that matters

Mixing the dressing until smooth. Raw yolks must be whisked with the oil and vinegar gradually so the fat emulsifies into the liquid. If the oil is added too fast or the mixture is not blended well, the dressing can separate instead of staying creamy.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

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