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Salad

Salmon Salad

Salmon salad with butter crackers, cucumber pickles, and a mustard vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Salmon Salad

Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Carefully pick over the salmon and add the liquor.

  2. Mix in the rolled butter crackers and chopped cucumber pickles.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, butter, salt, and vinegar.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens, then let it cool.

  3. Stir in the prepared mustard once cooled.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix with a silver fork.

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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Salmon + cucumbertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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 flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and bind it into a smooth, creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Butter crackers
Add body and absorb moisture, giving the salad a softer, more cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that smooths the cooked dressing.

The step that matters

Boil the dressing until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken as they heat but can scramble if overheated. Keep the mixture at a steady boil only until it thickens, then cool it, so the dressing stays smooth rather than curdled.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, cucumber, egg, vinegar):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Radishfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, cucumber, egg, vinegar. 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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