Name: Salmon Souffle
Ingredients: 1 can salmon, boned and broken up; 6 to 8 crackers, crushed; 2 tablespoons melted butter; ½ lemon, juiced; 1 to 2 eggs; salt and pepper to taste; chopped parsley; butter for greasing

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Salmon Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Preheat your steamer.
In a bowl, combine the salmon, crushed crackers, melted butter, lemon juice, eggs, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Mix thoroughly until well combined.
Generously butter a mold and press the mixture into it.

Steam and serve

Steam for one hour, leaving uncovered for the last 15 minutes.
Serve with cream gravy and peas.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable body.
Crackers: Absorb liquid and add body so the mixture holds together.
Salmon: Provides the main protein and flavor base of the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.

Swap the parsley

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

Parsleythe original
Dillfits about as well
Tarragonfits less well
Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, lemon, egg, 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.