Why it works: Bread and butter 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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the salmon and bread crumbs together in a bowl.
Melt the butter and add it to the salmon mixture.
Beat the eggs lightly and incorporate them into the mixture.
Add the milk, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, and mix well.
Steam
Heap the mixture lightly in a bowl and steam for 1 hour.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding when steamed.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft, tender structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the mixture stays soft and cooks gently rather than drying out.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a smoother texture.
The step that matters
Heap the mixture lightly. Packing the mixture down would make the pudding dense. Keeping it loosely heaped lets steam penetrate evenly so the eggs set into a light, tender 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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