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Salmi of Game

A stew of game, ham, onion, water, meat extract, herbs, flour, currant jelly, olives, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Salmi of Game

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the chopped onion and ham.

  3. Cut the game into neat pieces and dip them in flour.

  4. Brown the game pieces quickly in the butter.

Make the salmi

  1. Add water, meat extract, herbs, currant jelly, and olives.

  2. Cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve.

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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Flour and butter 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

Game
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it cooks slowly in liquid.
Flour
Coats the game pieces so they brown evenly and help thicken the sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich meat sauce.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the braising liquid.
Olives
Add a salty, briny note that contrasts with the rich game.

The step that matters

Browning the game pieces quickly in butter. Searing the floured pieces over high heat creates browned flavour through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or letting the pieces steam leaves them grey and bland, so brown them in batches.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, meat, flour, olive, butter):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, meat, flour, olive, butter. 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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