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Salmon Loaves

Salmon Loaves are baked bread buns filled with a creamy salmon mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon Loaves

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the buns

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut off the tops of the buns and scoop out the centers.

  3. Brush the outside and inside of the buns with melted butter.

  4. Place the buns in the hot oven until they are a delicate brown.

Make the creamed salmon

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, butter, and flour; blend well.

  2. Slowly add the beaten egg yolk while stirring constantly.

  3. Season with salt, paprika, and parsley to taste.

  4. Fold in the flaked salmon and optional chopped hard boiled eggs.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the browned buns with the creamed salmon mixture.

  2. Replace the tops of the buns and serve hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Stale baker's buns
Hollowed shells that hold the filling and brown in the oven as a crisp container.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce that binds the salmon.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and body to the creamed filling.
Salmon
Provides the main protein and flavor of the filling, held together by the sauce.

The step that matters

Slowly add the beaten egg yolk while stirring constantly. Adding hot sauce to raw egg yolk too quickly can scramble it into lumps. Constant stirring and gradual addition keep the yolk evenly blended and the sauce smooth.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, flour, egg, salmon. 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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