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Salmon in a Mould

A steamed salmon custard served with a sauce of milk, corn starch, butter, and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon in a Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salmon mixture

  1. Drain the liquid from the salmon.

  2. Remove the bones and skin.

  3. Chop the salmon finely.

  4. Mix the chopped salmon with melted butter until smooth.

  5. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, minced parsley, and celery if desired.

  6. Beat the eggs well.

  7. Add the cracker crumbs and mix everything thoroughly.

  8. Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold.

Steam

  1. Steam for one hour.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil the milk.

  2. Thicken the boiled milk with corn starch.

  3. Add the salmon liquid, butter, and catsup to the thickened milk.

  4. Carefully mix in the egg.

  5. Boil for one minute.

Serve

  1. Turn the salmon out of the mold.

  2. Pour the sauce around it.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Celery + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together920 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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 mould and gives it its flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, holding the mould together.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold its shape while steaming.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the salmon mixture and the sauce.
Milk
Forms the body of the sauce, which is thickened to coat the mould.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk so the sauce clings to the salmon.

The step that matters

Carefully mix in the egg. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding the egg to the hot sauce can scramble it. Stirring gently and keeping the sauce from boiling hard helps it stay smooth.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, pepper, parsley, egg, milk, corn):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, pepper, parsley, egg, milk, corn. 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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