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Salad

Fish Salad

A salad of flaked fish mixed with beans, peas, carrots, beets, French dressing, mayonnaise, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,443 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil fresh fish with a little vinegar to help it flake.

  2. Mix the flaked fish with fresh beans, peas, carrots, and beets.

Dress and serve

  1. Add French dressing and mix thoroughly.

  2. Serve topped with mayonnaise made with vinegar from capers.

  3. Garnish with a few capers 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.

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. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Beans + caperstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beans + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Carrot + caperstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together288 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold white fish
Forms the flaked base of the salad, providing the main protein and texture.
Mayonnaise
Adds richness and moisture, coating the salad with a creamy fat.
French dressing
Adds moisture and tangy acidity that seasons the flaked fish and vegetables.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity and flavour to the mayonnaise and garnish.

The step that matters

Boil fish with a little vinegar. Overcooking makes fish dry and tough, while a small amount of vinegar helps the proteins firm up so the fish breaks into clean flakes rather than mushing. Keep the heat gentle and check for flaking so the fish stays moist.

Swap the carrot

The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, beans, peas, capers):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, beans, peas, capers. 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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