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Salmon Loaf

A steamed loaf made from canned salmon, crackers, butter, milk, egg, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Salmon Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Make the loaf

  1. Mix the salmon, rolled crackers, melted butter, milk, beaten egg, salt, and pepper together until well combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf.

Cook

  1. Place the loaf in the upper part of a double boiler without water and steam for 1 hour, or cook in a fireless cooker for 2 hours.

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

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

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

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

  3. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Salmon + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,577 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Binds the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the loaf a softer, more cohesive texture.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the loaf tender as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, improving flavour and softness.

The step that matters

Steaming the loaf without water. Steaming gently heats the loaf through without drying it out. Cooking too hard or too long can make the egg set firm and the texture dry, so keep the heat gentle and the time as written.

“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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