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Salmon Loaf

A steamed loaf of salmon mixed with eggs, breadcrumbs, and butter, topped with a sauce of milk, cornstarch, and salmon liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the loaf

  1. Remove skins and bones from the salmon and chop it finely.

  2. Mix the chopped salmon with melted butter.

  3. Beat the eggs lightly and add them to the salmon mixture along with bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold and steam for one hour.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, thicken boiling milk with cornstarch and butter.

  2. Add the salmon liquor and a beaten raw egg to the sauce, mixing in a little pepper.

  3. Carefully pour the sauce over the salmon loaf before serving.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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 flavor of the loaf.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when steamed, giving the loaf structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and soften the texture so the loaf holds together.
Cornstarch
Thickens the boiling milk into a smooth, pourable sauce.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, adding richness and body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the loaf and sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Cornstarch must be fully heated in the boiling milk to swell and thicken. Adding the raw egg to the hot sauce needs care, since stirring in an egg too fast can curdle it and leave a grainy texture.

“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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