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Creamed Salmon

A custard-like salmon dish baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Creamed Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the salmon base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour, salt, paprika, and milk; cook until smooth.

  3. Stir in the minced salmon, lemon juice, and nutmeg.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten egg yolks.

Fold and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them in carefully.

  2. Butter individual molds or a baking dish, place in a hot water bath in a dripping pan.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the size of the mold.

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 + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and make the mixture light and puffed when baked.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the base as they set with heat, giving a custard-like structure.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the salmon together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Salmon
Provides the main flavor and protein, bound into the custard-like mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites lose their air if overmixed or stirred vigorously, so they should be folded in gently and quickly. Deflated whites leave the bake dense rather than light and puffed.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Vanillafits about as well

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