Name: Salmon Salad
Ingredients: cooked salmon, flaked; cabbage, finely shaved; cold cream dressing

Why it works: Salmon and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,401 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

cooked salmon, flaked
cabbage, finely shaved
cold cream dressing

Directions

Remove skin and bones from the cooked salmon and flake it into small pieces.
Finely shave the cabbage until it is white and crisp.
In a bowl, layer the cabbage, then add a layer of salmon, and repeat until you reach the desired quantity.
Pour cold cream dressing over the salad.
Garnish with fine shavings of cabbage 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.

Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,401 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Salmon + cabbagetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together94 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + creamtop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together778 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).