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Salmon Pudding

A baked salmon custard with eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Pudding

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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced salmon and melted butter until well mixed.

  3. Add the bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and minced parsley, and mix thoroughly.

  4. Incorporate the beaten eggs into the mixture until combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a buttered pudding mold.

  2. Place the mold in a dripping pan filled with hot water.

  3. Cover the mold and steam in the oven for one hour, ensuring the water remains at a fast boil.

  4. After cooking, set the mold in cold water for one minute to help it release.

  5. Invert onto a flat dish to 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.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the salmon stay tender.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and structure.
Cooked salmon
Provides the main flavor and protein that forms the body of the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a fast boil while steaming. Steaming in a covered mold relies on steady, hot steam to cook the egg-set pudding through evenly. If the water drops off the boil, the pudding cooks slowly and may turn out loose or unevenly set.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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

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