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Salmon Souffle

A baked salmon soufflé made with minced salmon, milk, butter, flour, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. In a bowl, combine minced salmon, salt, 3 shakes of cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and parsley.

  2. In a double boiler, heat milk.

  3. In a separate bowl, rub together butter and flour, then stir into boiling milk until thickened.

  4. Pour the thickened mixture over the salmon and mix well.

Bake

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks and then fold in the beaten egg whites until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into individual molds and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides the main body and flavour of the soufflé.
Egg whites
Whipped air that makes the soufflé rise and gives it a light, airy texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a tender structure as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a white sauce that gives the mixture body.
Milk
Forms the moist sauce base that binds the salmon and flour together.
Butter
Enriches the flour-milk sauce and adds richness and flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when whipped and folded gently; overmixing deflates the foam, so the soufflé will rise less and turn dense.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, lemon, milk, butter, flour, 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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