Skip to main content
Main

Salmon a LA Creme

A baked salmon dish with a creamy onion milk sauce and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the milk dressing

  1. Chop the onion.

  2. Add the chopped onion to the milk.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil for a few minutes.

  4. Strain out the onion.

  5. Stir in the butter until melted.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep dish.

  2. Layer flaked salmon, salt, pepper, and the milk dressing alternately.

  3. Top with bread crumbs.

  4. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 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

Flaked salmon
Forms the main body of the dish and provides its savory flavor.
Milk
Forms the creamy dressing that moistens the salmon as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the milk dressing, giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Bread crumbs
Form a crust on top that browns in the oven, adding texture.
Onion
Infuses the milk with aromatic flavor before being strained out.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture to a boil for a few minutes. Milk scorches and can boil over quickly. Keep the heat controlled and stir, because milk proteins can stick to the pan and burn, which spoils the flavor of the dressing.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesSalmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes