Skip to main content
Main

Moulded Salmon, Cucumber Sauce

Moulded salmon prepared with a sauce made from salt, sugar, flour, mustard, cayenne, egg yolks, butter, milk, vinegar, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Moulded Salmon, Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove salmon from can, rinse thoroughly with hot water, and separate into flakes.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix dry ingredients, add egg yolks, butter, milk, and vinegar.

  2. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly until mixture thickens.

  3. Add gelatin soaked in cold water.

  4. Strain, and add to salmon.

Mould and serve

  1. Fill individual moulds, chill, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1053Calories
48 gProtein
40 gFat
122 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Salmon100g cooked208
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Provides the main body and flavour of the mould.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they cook and bind it into a smooth custard.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the moulds.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Flour
Stabilises the sauce and helps it thicken without curdling.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg yolk mixture over boiling water. Egg yolks set at a moderate temperature and can curdle or scramble if overheated. Constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, sugar, flour, egg, butter, milk, vinegar):

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, sugar, flour, egg, butter, milk, vinegar. 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.

You might also like

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipesSmoked SalmonSmoked Salmon14 recipes