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Salmon in a Mould

A steamed salmon dish baked in a mold with eggs, breadcrumbs, butter, and a savory sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon in a Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salmon mixture

  1. Chop the salmon finely and mix with melted butter until smooth.

  2. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and minced parsley.

  3. Add the salmon mixture to the egg mixture and combine well.

Steam and make the sauce

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and steam for one hour.

  2. For the sauce, heat the milk in a saucepan.

  3. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with a little cold water to make a slurry.

  4. Add the slurry to the heated milk and stir until thickened.

  5. Remove from heat and carefully stir in the raw egg, tomato ketchup, mace, and cayenne.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 its shape when steamed and set.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the salmon mixture tender rather than dry.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, giving the mold a softer, more cohesive texture.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, which thickens with cornstarch into a smooth coating.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.

The step that matters

Stirring the raw egg into the sauce off the heat. Raw egg can scramble if the sauce is too hot. Removing the pan from heat first and stirring carefully keeps the sauce smooth and lightly enriched.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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