Skip to main content
Main

Smoked Salmon Chartreuse

A baked rice casserole with smoked salmon, curry, butter, and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Smoked Salmon Chartreuse

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soak the salmon to remove excessive salt.

  2. Boil the rice as usual and stir in the curry powder mixed with 2 tablespoons of butter.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, make a thick sauce with the remaining butter, flour, and milk.

  2. Add the flaked salmon, lemon juice, pepper, and onion juice to the sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a well-buttered bread tin with the rice.

  2. Pack the fish mixture into the tin, then add a layer of rice on top.

  3. Steam or bake in a pan of water in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the starchy base and top layer that holds the casserole together when set.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and rice with fat, adding richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a stable white sauce that binds the salmon mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a creamy texture.
Smoked salmon
Provides the main flavour and savoury protein that sets gently with the sauce.

The step that matters

Make the thick sauce before adding the salmon. Flour must be cooked into the butter and milk until thickened so the sauce binds the fish. A thin sauce will leave the casserole loose and watery once baked.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, salmon, lemon, pepper, milk, flour. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesSalmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipes