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Salmon Loaf

A steamed loaf made with canned salmon, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

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

Salmon Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat your steamer.

  2. Remove the skin and bones from the salmon and flake it with a fork.

Mix and steam

  1. In a bowl, combine the flaked salmon, beaten egg yolks, bread crumbs, milk, melted butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a greased loaf pan and steam for 1 hour.

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. Bread + buttertop 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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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 loaf and provides its savory flavor and flaky texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, giving the loaf its structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and butter, keeping the loaf tender rather than dense.
Milk
Adds moisture so the loaf stays soft during steaming.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air that makes the loaf light. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates the foam, leaving a heavier, denser loaf after steaming.

“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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