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Salmon Pudding

A baked salmon custard made with eggs, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

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

  1. Drain the liquid from the can of salmon and remove the skin and bones.

  2. In a bowl, mix the salmon with the eggs, milk, butter, salt, and pepper until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased tin.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the tin in a pan of hot water and bake for 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut into rings 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.

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

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

  2. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the salmon mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, so the custard-like mixture stays tender when baked.
Salmon
Provides the main protein and flavor, forming the body of the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.

The step that matters

Baking in a water bath. Baking the tin in a pan of hot water moderates the heat around the egg mixture. Gentler, even heat keeps the eggs from overcooking, which would make the pudding grainy, dry, or rubbery.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Peasfits better
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Sesamefits about as well

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