Name: Kedgeree of Salmon
Ingredients: 1 pound boiled salmon, cut into small pieces; 3-4 hard-boiled eggs, cut into small pieces; 1 pound well-boiled pilaff rice; ¾ pint Béchamel sauce, flavored with a small amount of curry; Butter, for greasing

Why it works: Sauce and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Kedgeree of Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 pound boiled salmon, cut into small pieces
3-4 hard-boiled eggs, cut into small pieces
1 pound well-boiled pilaff rice
¾ pint Béchamel sauce, flavored with a small amount of curry
Butter, for greasing

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Remove the skin and bones from the salmon.
In a bowl, mix the salmon, hard-boiled eggs, pilaff rice, and béchamel sauce.

Bake and serve

Grease a mold with butter and fill it with the mixture.
Place the mold in a stewpan of boiling water and cover the top with paper.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for 15 minutes.
Turn out the kedgeree onto a hot dish and serve.

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.

Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,485 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Provides the main flesh and flavor, forming the body of the dish.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a firm, sliced-egg texture throughout the mixture.
Pilaff rice: Gives bulk and a light, separate-grained texture that soaks up the sauce.
Béchamel sauce: Binds the ingredients together and adds moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Baking the mold in a water bath. Setting the mold in boiling water with a paper cover keeps the heat gentle and the moisture in, so the sauce and eggs set evenly without drying or curdling at the edges.

“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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Kedgeree of Salmon