Name: Salmon Salad
Ingredients: 1 tender head of celery; 1 can of salmon; 1 small onion; salt to taste; pepper to taste; vinegar to taste; thin slices of lemon for garnish; sprigs of celery for garnish

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the celery in half lengthwise.
Open the can of salmon and cut it into half‑inch dice.
Chop the onion very finely.

Assemble and serve

Mix the celery, salmon, and onion together.
Add salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste.
Garnish with thin slices of lemon and a few sprigs of celery.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Celery: Adds a crisp, watery crunch that contrasts with the soft salmon.
Salmon: Provides the main protein and flaky texture of the salad.
Onion: Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the fish.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, salmon, pepper, vinegar, lemon):

Mustardfits better
Cucumberfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, salmon, pepper, vinegar, lemon. 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.