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Quenelles of Cod, Salmon, Etc

Quenelles made from salmon or cod, butter, panada, eggs, salt, and cayenne pepper, chilled before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,481 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Quenelles of Cod, Salmon, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the skin from a thick slice of salmon or cod.

  2. Scrape the flesh with a spoon and rub it through a wire sieve into a dish.

Make the mixture

  1. Pound the fish with butter and panada.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. Gradually add one whole egg and the yolks of two others.

  4. Pound the mixture again and chill until ready to use.

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

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

  2. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon or cod
Provides the delicate flesh that forms the body of the quenelles.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the quenelles tender and moist.
Panada
Acts as a binder that gives the mixture body and helps it hold its shape.
Eggs
Add structure as they set, helping the quenelles hold together and firm up.

The step that matters

Gradually add the eggs. Adding the egg in small amounts while pounding lets the mixture absorb it evenly. Adding it all at once can break the emulsion and leave the mixture loose, so the quenelles may not hold their shape.

“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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