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Deviled Salmon

Deviled Salmon is a baked salmon dish topped with a mustard‑flavored 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 ↓

Deviled Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until it bubbles.

  3. Add the flour and mix well.

  4. Gradually stir in the milk until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

  5. Make the mustard into a soft paste and add it to the mixture along with the cayenne pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the salmon in a pudding dish and pour the sauce over it.

  2. Spread a thin layer of bread crumbs on top and add a few bits of butter.

  3. Bake for 10 minutes.

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

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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, providing protein and flaky texture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps build the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth, stable sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that cuts the richness of the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Forms a topping that becomes golden and crisp in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the milk. Adding milk slowly while stirring lets the flour disperse evenly, preventing lumps and giving a smooth, creamy sauce instead of a grainy one.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, flour, pepper, milk, bread. 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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