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Salad

Salmon Salad

A salad of minced salmon, cabbage, pickle, eggs, and vinegar dressing.

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

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bone and skin from the salmon and mince it very fine.

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced salmon, chopped cabbage, chopped pickle, and chopped hard boiled eggs.

Dress and serve

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar and add salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard to taste.

  2. Pour the vinegar mixture over the salmon and cabbage mixture.

  3. Garnish the dish with curled parsley or lettuce leaves.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the salad and supplies its savory, meaty flavor.
White cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk to the salad.
Pickle
Adds acidity and tang that brighten the salad.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft, creamy texture.
Vinegar
Provides sharp acidity that flavors and softens the mixture.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar mixture over the salad. Hot vinegar can cook the eggs and wilt the cabbage if it is poured in too early or left to sit. Seasoning the vinegar before pouring lets the salt, sugar and mustard dissolve evenly through the salad.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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