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Creamed Salmon

A baked salmon dish with cream, cornstarch, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Creamed Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the salmon

  1. Drain the salmon and remove all bones and skin, then flake the fish into small pieces.

Make the cream sauce

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk and cream with baking soda.

  2. Mix the cornstarch with butter until smooth, then add to the heated milk and cream, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Add the flaked salmon to the sauce and gently toss until heated through.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and dot with additional butter.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  3. Serve with sliced lemon on toast or crackers.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main body and flavor of the dish as the bulk of the filling.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the sauce a smooth, velvety texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk and cream into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Milk
Thins the sauce and adds moisture while keeping it creamy.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and helps the cornstarch blend smoothly into the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch into the hot dairy. Cornstarch thickens only when heated and stirred, and adding it without constant stirring can cause lumps or uneven thickening. Stirring keeps the starch granules dispersed so the sauce turns smooth and consistent.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Mangofits about as well

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

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