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Moulded Salmon

A chilled salmon salad set in a mold, bound with a mayonnaise-based dressing and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Moulded Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Make a salad dressing using the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, eggs, sweet milk or cream, and vinegar.

  2. Soften the gelatin in cold water.

  3. Dissolve the softened gelatin in the hot dressing while stirring constantly.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Add salmon and set

  1. Add the salmon to the dressing and mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture into a moistened mould and chill until set.

Unmould and serve

  1. Unmould onto a bed of lettuce and garnish with parsley and hard-cooked eggs or olives.

  2. Serve with additional salad dressing.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

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

  3. Salmon + peastop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together375 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,885 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise
Gives the dressing richness and a smooth, creamy body.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing and add richness and body.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when unmoulded.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the dressing.
Salmon
Provides the main body, flavour and texture of the mould.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine in the hot dressing. Gelatine must dissolve completely and evenly into the warm dressing; stirring constantly prevents lumps and clumps. Undissolved gelatine leaves weak or patchy spots, so the mould may not set firmly or hold its shape when unmoulded.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, sugar, egg, milk, vinegar, salmon, parsley):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

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