Skip to main content
Main

Salmon Soup

A creamy soup made with salmon, milk, veal stock, flour, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Salmon Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Take 1 pound fresh or canned salmon, cover with boiling water and simmer 15 minutes.

  2. Take out skin and bones and mash through a colander.

Make the soup

  1. Bring 1 pint each of milk and veal stock to the boil.

  2. Stir in 2 tablespoons flour rubbed with 1 tablespoon butter.

  3. When it thickens, put in the salmon.

  4. Take up when it reaches the boil again.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. If no stock, use that much more milk and boil in it a little onion, bay leaf, and parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

712Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 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.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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

What each ingredient does

Salmon (in the method)
Provides the main protein and the characteristic flavor of the soup.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and creaminess.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving the soup body.
Butter
Adds richness and coats the flour so it blends without clumping.
Veal stock (in the method)
Adds savory depth to the liquid base.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and butter. Flour clumps when it hits hot liquid unevenly. Rubbing it with butter and stirring it in well lets the starch disperse and thicken smoothly as the soup heats.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes