Name: Salmon Loaf
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon cold salmon or 3 tablespoons butter; 1 can salmon; 3 eggs; ½ cup cracker crumbs; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Salmon and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,485 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Salmon Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove bones and skin from the salmon.
In a bowl, combine cracker crumbs, melted butter, beaten eggs, salt, and pepper.
Mix all ingredients together and pack into a buttered mold.

Cook and serve

Steam for 1 hour.
Serve hot with either white or tomato sauce.

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.

Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,485 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,446 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together50,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Eggs: Bind the salmon and crumbs together and set when steamed, giving the loaf structure.
Cracker crumbs: Absorb moisture and bulk out the salmon, helping the loaf hold its shape.
Salmon: Provides the main body, flavour and texture of the loaf.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister 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.