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Steamed Salmon

A salmon dish steamed with eggs, butter, milk, breadcrumbs, onion, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Steamed Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the salmon.

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the salmon well and add the beaten eggs, butter, milk, bread crumbs, chopped onion, pepper, and salt.

Steam

  1. Pack the mixture into a dish and steam until cooked through.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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 so it holds together when steamed and sliced.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, keeping the loaf moist and tender.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the steamed mixture soft rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, improving flavor and mouthfeel.
Salmon
Main protein, providing the flavor and structure of the dish.

The step that matters

Steam until cooked through. Steaming gently sets the egg proteins so the mixture firms without drying out. Overcooking makes it tough and rubbery, so check that the centre is set before removing it from the heat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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