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Dressed Salmon with Sauce

A steamed salmon patty served with a creamy lemon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Dressed Salmon with Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the salmon mixture

  1. Mix the butter into the salmon.

  2. Add minced parsley, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs. Mix thoroughly.

  3. Beat the eggs and add them last to the mixture.

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

Steam and unmold

  1. Place the mold in a steamer and steam for 45 minutes.

  2. Place the mold in cold water for a few minutes.

  3. Turn it out onto a serving dish.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the corn starch.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Mix in the egg yolk and lemon juice.

  6. Season with salt and red pepper to taste.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + corntop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together943 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the body of the patties and provides the main flavor and protein structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when steamed, holding the patties together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, keeping the mixture tender rather than dense.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the salmon and to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, which thickens as the starch cooks in it.
Corn starch
Thickens the sauce as it heats with the milk, giving it a smooth body.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk while stirring the sauce. Adding milk slowly to the butter and corn starch keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, butter, bread, pepper, sauce, corn. 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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