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Salmon Loaf

A baked loaf made from flaked salmon, bread crumbs, butter, milk, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA medium oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a medium oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove bones and flake the salmon.

  2. In a bowl, combine salmon, bread crumbs, butter, salt, pepper, and egg. Mix well and slowly add milk.

  3. Mold the mixture into a loaf.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. For a moister loaf, steam instead of baking, but it may be harder to serve.

  3. Serve hot on a bed of lettuce or parsley.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 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
Provides the main body and flavor of the loaf.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the loaf structure so it holds together.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the loaf sets firmly when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a softer texture.

The step that matters

Adding the milk slowly. Bread crumbs absorb liquid at different rates, so pouring the milk in gradually lets you stop once the mixture is moist but still shapeable. Too much liquid at once makes the loaf soggy and hard to mold.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, bread, butter, milk, egg, pepper):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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