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Salmon Loaf

A steamed salmon loaf made with canned salmon, eggs, bread crumbs, butter, milk, cornstarch, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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 ↓

Salmon Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the loaf

  1. In a bowl, combine the rubbed salmon, beaten eggs, bread crumbs, melted butter, salt, and pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, boil the milk and cornstarch for 1 minute.

  2. Add the juice from the salmon can and the beaten egg to the milk mixture. Mix well and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Cook

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and steam or boil 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the salmon and crumbs together and set the loaf as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the loaf body so it holds together.
Salmon
Provides the main flesh and flavor of the loaf.
Milk
Forms the cornstarch-thickened base that adds moisture to the loaf.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth base that keeps the loaf moist.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a softer texture.

The step that matters

Steam or boil the loaf gently. Eggs set as they heat, so high or uneven heat can make the loaf rubbery or cause it to crack. Gentle, steady heat yields a tender, evenly set loaf.

“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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