Name: Salmon Pie
Ingredients: 3.5 pounds salmon; 2.3 pounds mashed potatoes; ½ cup butter; 1 quart cream; salt to taste; 1 egg yolk (for brushing)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon Pie

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 salmon

Boil the salmon until cooked.
Remove the bones.
Mash the salmon finely.

Assemble and bake

Mix in the mashed potatoes, butter, cream, and salt.
Fill a pie dish with the mixture.
Brush the top with the egg yolk.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.

Serve

Serve with egg sauce or diced lemon.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,401 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,485 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Forms the main filling and provides the flavour and body of the pie.
Mashed potatoes: Add bulk and a soft, moist texture to the filling.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, helping bind the filling into a soft mass.
Egg yolk: Brushed on top, it promotes browning for a golden crust.