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Salmon Pudding

A steamed loaf of salmon, breadcrumbs, eggs, and butter, served with a butter‑milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the loaf

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Mix together the melted butter, breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, and beaten eggs.

  3. Form the mixture into a loaf and place it in a buttered tin.

  4. Set the tin in a pan of hot water and cover it.

  5. Steam for 1 hour, adding boiling water to the pan as needed.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk to boiling.

  2. Thicken the milk with cornstarch mixed in cold water.

  3. Add butter, salmon liquor, and a beaten egg.

  4. Remove from heat, season, and keep in hot water for 3 minutes.

  5. Add lemon juice and pour the sauce over the loaf.

Serve

  1. After steaming, cool the loaf in cold water for 1 minute, then turn it out to serve.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable loaf when cooked.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the loaf and the sauce.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the loaf body and structure.
Salmon
Provides the main flavour and protein that forms the body of the loaf.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, which thickens into a smooth, creamy coating.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be mixed into cold water before it goes into hot milk, otherwise it clumps. It thickens when heated to boiling, and the sauce should be kept hot rather than boiled hard, so it stays smooth and glossy.

“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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