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Creamed Salmon

A baked salmon dish topped with a creamy sauce and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Creamed Salmon

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.

Make the sauce

  1. Drain the salmon, remove the bone, and break it into fine pieces.

  2. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  3. Rub the butter with the flour until smooth.

  4. Add the butter-flour mixture to the milk.

  5. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

  6. Boil the sauce until it is smooth and thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Add a layer of salmon over the crumbs.

  3. Add a layer of white sauce over the salmon.

  4. Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of white sauce on top.

  5. Sprinkle additional bread crumbs on top.

  6. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the top is rich brown.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 main body of the dish and provides its savory flavor and texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the flour cook into a smooth roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce as it cooks.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Form the base and topping layers, and brown during baking for a crisp top.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce until smooth and thick. Flour must be heated long enough to swell and set the starch; undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin sauce that won't hold its layers.

“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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