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Salmon Soup

A creamy soup made with onion, salmon, parsley, butter, milk, and served with hard‑boiled eggs and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the onion until tender.

  2. Drain the water.

  3. Add the salmon, parsley, butter, salt, and pepper to the onion.

  4. Pour the milk over the mixture and bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with slices of hard-boiled egg and a dash of cayenne in the tureen.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main flavour and body of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Onion
Softens while boiling and contributes savoury sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil after adding the milk. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pan or curdle if it boils too hard or for too long, so heat should be watched closely once the milk goes in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, parsley, walnut, butter, pepper, milk, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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