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Salmon Pudding

A steamed salmon pudding made with boiled salmon, bread crumbs, egg yolks, butter, anchovy essence, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Pound the salmon in a mortar until fine.

  2. Mix in the soaked bread crumbs (or flour), egg yolks, butter, essence of anchovy, and milk until well combined.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Steam or boil for one hour.

  2. Serve with white sauce mixed with essence of anchovy, chopped capers and vinegar, or cucumber sauce.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 and flavour of the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Soaked and squeezed, they add moisture and a soft, light crumb.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and set on cooking, giving the pudding structure and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays soft and sets gently.

The step that matters

Steam or boil for one hour. Egg yolks set with gentle, steady heat. Too fast or too hot a cooking liquid can make the pudding tough, dense, or watery, so keep the water at a gentle simmer.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, bread, egg, butter, anchovy, milk, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, bread, egg, butter, anchovy, milk, pepper. 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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