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Creamed Salmon Baked in Shells

A baked salmon dish with a creamy sauce, topped with cracker crumbs and garnished with parsley and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Salmon Baked in Shells

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Remove all bones from the salmon.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour (or cornstarch) until smooth.

  4. Gradually add the milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

  5. Stir in salt, white pepper, celery salt, cayenne, and onion juice.

Fill and bake

  1. Mix half of the cracker crumbs with the salmon and enough cream sauce to moisten it.

  2. Spoon the mixture into shells and top with the remaining cracker crumbs.

  3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with parsley and sliced lemon.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the bulk of the filling and provides the main flavour and texture.
Flour or cornstarch
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth sauce that binds the filling.
Milk
Makes the cream sauce that moistens the salmon and keeps the filling tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb sauce to give body to the filling and brown to form a crisp topping.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream sauce. Flour or cornstarch must be whisked smooth into the melted butter and milk added gradually, or lumps form. The sauce must thicken fully before mixing, so the salmon is moist but the filling holds its shape.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, milk, butter, flour, celery, pepper, onion. 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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