Name: Creamed Salmon Baked in Shells
Ingredients: one cup fine cracker crumbs; one-half teaspoon salt; one-half teaspoon celery salt; one teaspoon onion juice; one scant pint milk; two even tablespoons butter; four heaping tablespoons flour; two heaping tablespoons cornstarch; one-half salt spoon white pepper

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Creamed Salmon Baked in Shells

Ingredients

Directions

One can salmon, one cup fine cracker crumbs. Cream sauce: One scant pint milk, two even tablespoons butter,
168 THE ARIZONA COOK BOOK
four heaping tablespoons flour, or two heaping tablespoons cornstarch, one-half teaspoon salt, one-half salt spoon white pepper, one-half teaspoon celery salt, a few grains cayenne, one teaspoon onion juice. Take all bones from the salmon, half of the crackers, enough of the cream sauce to make the salmon quite moist. Put in shells with the rest of the cracker crumbs on top. Serve with parsley and sliced lemon. — Mrs. William Wente, Manistee, Mich.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

828Calories

24 gProtein

23 gFat

131 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 8 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cracker	5 saltine crackers (15g)	66
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, onion, milk, butter, flour):

Parsleyfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Thymefits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, onion, milk, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.