Skip to main content
Main

Salmon Puffs

Salmon puffs are baked salmon and breadcrumb cakes served with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA good hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the salmon, melted butter, salt, white pepper, grated onion, bread crumbs, beaten eggs, and lemon juice or vinegar until well combined.

Bake

  1. Spoon the mixture into cups and place the cups in a pot of boiling water.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Once done, turn the puffs out onto a platter and pour a good white sauce around them.

  2. Decorate with parsley and slices of lemon.

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

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

  5. 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

Boiled salmon
Forms the main body of the puffs and gives them their flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it cooks, giving the puffs their structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture holds together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Lemon juice or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Bake the puffs in a pot of boiling water. Beaten eggs set gently when the heat is steady and moist. Too much dry heat or overcooking makes the eggs tough, rubbery, and dry.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesSalmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipes