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Salmon Loaf

A chilled loaf of flaked salmon bound with egg yolks, herbs, and gelatin, served sliced on lettuce with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Salmon Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix flaked salmon with pounded egg yolks, pepper, salt, mace, parsley, and capers. Set aside in a cold place.

  2. Heat the fish stock and add lemon juice. Pour it over the soaked gelatin and stir until scalding hot.

  3. Combine the stock mixture with the salmon mixture and pour into a buttered mold lined with rings of boiled egg whites.

Set and serve

  1. Press the mixture gently into the mold, cover with a plate, and place a weight on top.

  2. Let it cool completely.

  3. Once firm, turn the salmon loaf out onto a platter.

  4. Cut into slices and serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise sauce.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Capers + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it its main flavour and texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and body to the salmon mixture.
Fish stock
Adds moisture and savoury fish flavour to the loaf.
Gelatin
Sets the stock so the loaf holds its shape when cold.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny accent that cuts the richness of the fish.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatin in hot stock. Gelatin must be fully dissolved in hot liquid to set evenly; undissolved granules leave soft spots, and the loaf needs to cool fully before it firms enough to unmold.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, pepper, parsley, capers, fish, lemon):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, pepper, parsley, capers, fish, lemon. 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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