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Creamed Salmon

A creamy salmon baked in shells or pans, topped with cracker crumbs and butter.

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

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

  1. Drain the salmon in a colander and flake it with a fork, removing all bones and skin.

  2. In a double boiler, heat the cream and milk with a pinch of baking soda.

  3. In a separate bowl, rub together the cornstarch, butter, salt, and pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk, stirring continuously until thickened and smooth.

  2. Add the salmon and stir until heated through.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill scallop shells or patty pans with the mixture, sprinkle with cracker crumbs and small bits of butter.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

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

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

  3. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  5. Salmon + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,577 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main protein, flavor, and flaky texture of the filling.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, giving it a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that the starch thickens.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot liquid into a smooth sauce as its starch granules swell and gelatinize.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor, and helps the topping brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk continuously. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid unevenly. Constant stirring disperses the granules so they swell and thicken the sauce evenly and smoothly.

“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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