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Salmon Loaf

A steamed loaf made from canned salmon, cracker crumbs, eggs, butter, lemon juice, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Salmon Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the salmon, cracker crumbs, salt, eggs, cayenne pepper, melted butter, and lemon juice in a bowl.

  2. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a steaming dish and steam for 1 hour.

  2. Serve with mushroom sauce or drawn butter sauce and parsley.

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm while steaming.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the loaf body and structure.
Salmon
Forms the main body of the loaf and provides its flavor.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister texture.

The step that matters

Steaming the loaf. Steam heat must be steady and the loaf fully set; eggs firm as they heat, so too little time leaves the loaf loose and too much can make it dry and rubbery.

“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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