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Puree of Salmon

A creamy salmon purée made with milk, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Puree of Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk, onion, and parsley for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove oil and bones from the salmon and flake it.

Make the purée

  1. In a pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour until smooth and frothy.

  2. Gradually add the milk mixture, stirring well.

  3. Add the flaked salmon and seasonings, then strain and serve.

  4. Do not boil after adding the salmon.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that carries the salmon.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the flour mixture cook smoothly.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce when cooked with butter.
Cooked salmon
Provides the main flavour and body of the purée.

The step that matters

Do not boil after adding the salmon. Boiling a dairy sauce with fish can cause it to curdle and separate, and can toughen the delicate flaked salmon. Keeping it hot but below a boil keeps the purée smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, parsley, onion, butter, flour, salmon, nutmeg. 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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