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Moulded Salmon

A salmon mixture baked in molds, served chilled with cucumber sauce.

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 ↓

Moulded Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix the flaked salmon, salt, sugar, flour, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Add the egg yolks, butter, milk, and vinegar.

Cook and set

  1. Cook over boiling water until the mixture thickens.

  2. Stir in the cold water.

  3. Pour the mixture into moulds.

  4. Chill until set.

Serve

  1. Serve with cucumber 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.

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

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

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Salmon
Provides the main body and flavour of the mould.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture on gentle heat and help it set firm when chilled.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Milk
Makes the mixture soft and creamy, and helps it thicken with the yolks.
Flour
Stabilises the mixture and adds body so it holds its shape.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness.

The step that matters

Cooking over boiling water until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat, but overheating scrambles them into grainy lumps. Keep the water simmering, not violently boiling, and stir steadily so the custard-like base thickens smoothly before it is moulded and chilled.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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