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Salmon Souffle

A baked salmon soufflé made with milk, cream, bread crumbs, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salmon Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Combine milk and cream in the upper part of a double boiler and heat until just about to boil.

  2. Add bread crumbs, salt, white pepper, cayenne, salmon, and Worcestershire sauce, then stir and cook for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten yolks of the eggs, then return to hot water for another 1-2 minutes.

  4. Let cool completely.

Assemble

  1. Fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites gently, about half an hour before serving.

  2. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes in a pan of boiling water.

  2. Serve immediately with egg sandwiches and olives.

  3. Optionally, add chopped or grated hard-boiled eggs to the salmon before cooling.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + salmontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

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

  5. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 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
Whipped whites trap air that lifts the soufflé, while the yolks enrich the base and help it set.
Salmon
Provides the main flavour and the protein that firms up as the soufflé sets.
Milk and cream
Supply moisture and richness, forming a smooth, tender base for the eggs.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the mixture body so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in, while stirring hard deflates the foam. Bake soon after folding, because the foam loses its lift as it waits.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, bread, pepper, salmon, sauce, 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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