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Salmon in a Mold

A baked salmon mixture served with a milk‑based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon in a Mold

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salmon mold

  1. Chop the salmon finely.

  2. Mix the chopped salmon with the melted butter until smooth.

  3. In a bowl, combine the beaten egg and bread crumbs.

  4. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and parsley.

  5. Mix all ingredients together until well combined.

  6. Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold.

  7. Steam or boil the mold for 1 hour.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk to a boil.

  2. Thicken the milk with corn starch.

  3. Add the liquor from the salmon, butter, and ketchup.

  4. Stir in the egg carefully.

  5. Boil the sauce for 1 minute.

Serve

  1. Turn the salmon mold out onto a plate.

  2. Pour the sauce over the salmon.

  3. Cut the salmon into slices.

  4. Serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the mold and gives its flavor.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the mold holds together when turned out.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add bulk, giving the mold a softer, set texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the salmon mixture and the sauce.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, which corn starch thickens.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg carefully. Adding beaten egg to a hot sauce can scramble it. Stirring gently and off the heat keeps the sauce smooth and silky.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, butter, bread, pepper, milk, corn. 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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