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Devilled Salmon, Smoked

A toasted biscuit topped with smoked salmon and deviled paste or butter, seasoned with salt, cayenne, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and pepper work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 841 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Devilled Salmon, Smoked

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the biscuits

  1. Soak the biscuits in salad oil for a few minutes.

  2. Remove the biscuits and dust with coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper.

  3. Toast the biscuits on both sides.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place thinly cut slices of smoked salmon on the biscuits.

  2. Cover the salmon with a thin layer of devilled paste or butter.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

  3. Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Biscuit + salmontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together101 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Smoked salmon
Provides the main savoury flavour and a delicate, tender topping for the biscuits.
Devilled paste or butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying spice flavour and helping the topping brown lightly in the oven.
Wholemeal or water biscuits
Forms the crisp base that holds the toppings and stays firm after baking.
Salad oil
Adds fat that softens the biscuits and helps the seasonings stick before toasting.

The step that matters

Toasting the biscuits on both sides. Biscuits that are not dried and toasted through will go soft under the salmon and fat. Toasting on both sides drives off moisture so the base stays crisp after the final bake.

“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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