Skip to main content
Main

Salmon, Tinned, with Macaroni

A baked casserole of tinned salmon and macaroni with anchovy sauce, butter, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salmon, Tinned, with Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Grease a pie dish and line it with crumbs.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer boiled macaroni and flaked tinned salmon in the dish.

  2. Moisten each layer with hot milk and season with pepper, salt, and herbs.

  3. Pour anchovy sauce over the top.

  4. Finish with a layer of macaroni coated in crumbs.

  5. Drizzle with butter and bake until brown.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and body of the dish, holding the layers together when baked.
Tinned salmon
Provides the main flavour and protein, flaked through the layers.
Hot milk
Moistens the layers so the macaroni stays tender rather than drying out in the oven.
Anchovy sauce
Adds savoury, salty depth and moisture that seasons the layers as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top crumbs brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Drizzle with butter and bake until brown. Butter carries heat to the crumb topping and promotes browning through milk solids and fat. Baking only until the top is golden keeps the macaroni moist beneath.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, salmon, pepper, anchovy, sauce, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, salmon, pepper, anchovy, sauce, butter. 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

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipesSmoked SalmonSmoked Salmon14 recipes