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Baked Canned Salmon

A baked casserole of canned salmon topped with mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, and cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Baked Canned Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the canned salmon steak and place it in a small baking pan.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and chopped parsley.

  3. Spread a 1‑inch thick layer of well‑seasoned mashed potatoes on top.

  4. Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 30 minutes in a hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C), basting occasionally with melted butter and cream.

  2. Transfer to a platter and pour cream gravy around it.

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. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Canned salmon steak
Provides the main body of the dish, with its flesh becoming flaky and moist as it heats.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a thick, soft topping that insulates the fish and keeps it moist while baking.
Buttered bread crumbs
Adds a crisp, golden top layer as they brown in the oven.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown when basted over the dish.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the basting liquid and the gravy.

The step that matters

Basting with butter and cream during baking. Basting adds moisture and fat to the surface while it bakes, helping the topping brown evenly without drying out. Basting only occasionally keeps the oven heat from being lost each time the door is opened.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

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