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Scalloped Salmon

A baked salmon dish layered with crackers, butter, salt, pepper, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove bones and skin from the canned salmon or boil fresh salmon until cooked, then flake it when cold.

  2. Butter a baking dish and layer rolled crackers on the bottom.

Layer and bake

  1. Add a layer of flaked salmon, then sprinkle with pieces of butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Repeat layering with crackers and salmon until the dish is full.

  3. Add enough milk to thoroughly moisten the layers, setting aside for a few minutes to absorb.

  4. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for one 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Salmon + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,577 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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 supplies its savoury flavour and protein-rich filling.
Rolled crackers
Absorb the milk and bind with the salmon, giving the layers a soft, set structure.
Milk
Moistens the layers so the crackers soften and the dish bakes creamy rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the top and edges brown lightly.

The step that matters

Moistening the layers with milk. Enough milk must reach every layer so the crackers can absorb it and soften. Dry pockets stay tough and the dish bakes unevenly, while excess liquid makes it watery.

“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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