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Salmon Cream

A steamed salmon custard served with butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon mixture

  1. Blend the salmon well in a bowl.

  2. Add the egg yolks, salt, cayenne, mace, onion, cream or milk, butter, and breadcrumbs to the salmon mixture. Mix well.

Steam and set

  1. Transfer the mixture into a mold and steam until set.

Make the butter sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan for the butter sauce.

  2. Stir in the flour and salt.

  3. Gradually add boiling water while stirring continuously until the sauce is smooth.

Serve

  1. Serve the salmon cream with the butter 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the custard and gives it its flavour.
Egg yolks
Set during steaming to bind the mixture into a firm, sliceable custard.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the custard tender rather than dry.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help give the custard a lighter, more tender structure.
Flour
Thickens the butter sauce together with the butter, giving it body.

The step that matters

Steam until set, not boiled. Egg proteins set at gentle heat; high or rough heat makes the custard curdle, weep liquid, or turn rubbery and grainy. Steam gently and stop once the custard firms.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, pepper, onion, cream, butter, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, pepper, onion, cream, butter, sauce. 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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