Name: Creamed Salmon Trout
Ingredients: 1 whole salmon trout, cleaned and washed; butter, for rubbing; water, for baking; 1 cup cream; a pinch of baking soda; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon corn starch; chopped parsley, to taste

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creamed Salmon Trout

Ingredients

Directions

Bake the fish

Rub the cleaned salmon trout all over with butter.
Place the salmon in a covered baking pan with enough water underneath to prevent burning.
Bake for 10 minutes per pound, basting four times with butter and water.
Transfer the fish to a heated dish.

Make the cream sauce

In a separate vessel, heat the cream with a pinch of baking soda until scalding.
Thicken the cream with butter rolled in corn starch, cooking for one minute.
Stir in chopped parsley and pour the sauce over the fish.

Serve

Cover the dish and let it sit for three minutes before serving.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Corn + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together943 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,401 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon trout: Provides the main protein, which firms and flakes as it cooks through.
Cream: Forms the rich, smooth base of the sauce and adds fat for mouthfeel.
Corn starch: Thickens the hot cream into a glossy sauce as its granules swell with heat.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the fish and carries flavour in the sauce.
Baking soda: Raises the cream's pH slightly, which can help it stay smooth when heated.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream with corn starch. Cornstarch needs to reach a simmer or scalding heat and cook briefly to swell and thicken fully. Adding it too cold leaves lumps, and undercooking leaves a starchy taste and a thin sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, cream, corn):

Nutmegfits better
Capersfits better
Tarragonfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, cream, corn. 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.

Corn Fritters203 recipes

Salmon Salad155 recipes

Salmon Croquettes129 recipes

Cream of Corn Soup50 recipes

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Creamed Salmon Trout