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Salad

Salmon-and-green-pea Salad

A salad of cooked salmon, green peas, lemon, oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, lettuce, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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-and-green-pea Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Squeeze lemon juice over squares or flakes of cooked salmon and let chill.

  2. Dress the cooked peas with oil and vinegar, adding just enough to coat.

  3. Dust with black pepper and salt if needed.

  4. Toss the peas until well mixed with the condiments.

Assemble and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a salad bowl and arrange the drained salmon in the center.

  2. Finish with heart leaves of lettuce and mayonnaise dressing, and serve immediately.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

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

  5. Peas + salmontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together375 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked peas
Provide the main bulk and a tender, sweet bite for the salad.
Cooked salmon
Supplies rich flavor and a flaky, tender texture as the centerpiece.
Oil
Coats the peas, adding moisture and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the peas and balances the richness of the fish.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and creaminess that moistens the salad and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Dress the peas lightly. Adding too much oil or vinegar makes the peas soggy and the dish greasy or sharp. Adding just enough to coat lets each pea stay intact and keeps the flavors balanced.

Swap the peas

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

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

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