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Moulded Salmon with Cucumber Sauce

A chilled salmon mousse moulded into shapes, served with a cucumber and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Moulded Salmon with Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove salmon from the bone and rinse thoroughly with hot water.

  2. Drain the salmon and separate into flakes.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the dry ingredients: salt, sugar, and flour.

  2. Add egg yolks, melted butter, sweet cream, and vinegar to the dry mixture.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thickened.

  4. Stir in the soaked gelatine and salmon flakes until well combined.

Mould and chill

  1. Fill individual molds with the mixture.

  2. Chill the molds.

  3. Serve the chilled salmon.

Make the cucumber sauce

  1. Beat the whipping cream until stiff.

  2. Add salt and paprika to the whipped cream to taste.

  3. Gradually mix in vinegar and the chopped cucumber.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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 body and flavour of the mould.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and add richness when cooked gently.
Gelatine
Sets the salmon mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Flour
Thickens the custard base, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Whipping cream
Adds air and a light, creamy texture to the cucumber sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as they heat but can scramble if overheated. Gentle, indirect heat from a double boiler lets the mixture thicken smoothly without curdling, which keeps the base silky before the gelatine and salmon are added.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, sugar, flour, egg, butter, cream, vinegar):

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, sugar, flour, egg, butter, cream, vinegar. 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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