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Salmon Loaf with Tomato Sauce

A baked salmon loaf mixed with butter, crackers, eggs, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Loaf with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the loaf

  1. Remove bones and skin from the salmon.

  2. Mix the salmon smoothly.

  3. Add melted butter, rolled crackers, pepper, salt, and grated onion.

  4. Beat the eggs thoroughly and add them to the mixture.

  5. Steam in a round can for 1 hour and 15 minutes, tying a cloth under the cover to absorb water.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Boil canned tomatoes with water and onion slices for 10-15 minutes.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Blend butter with flour in a frying pan.

  4. Add the tomato juice.

  5. Cook until creamy.

Serve

  1. Place the loaf on a platter.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

  3. Serve in slices with tomato sauce.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Bind the salmon mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
Salmon
Provides the main body and flavour of the loaf.
Rolled crackers
Absorb moisture and give the loaf a light, crumbly structure.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the loaf and a smooth base for the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and tomato sauce to a creamy consistency.
Canned tomatoes
Supply acidity and body to the sauce once sieved.

The step that matters

Steaming with a cloth under the cover. Eggs set into a firm loaf only when heated gently and evenly. Tying a cloth under the lid absorbs condensation that would otherwise drip onto the loaf and make it watery and soggy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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