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Salmon Loaf

A baked loaf made from canned salmon, butter, breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, and cornstarch, served with a milk‑cornstarch sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the loaf

  1. Mince the drained salmon and combine it with melted butter, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, parsley, the whole egg, and the beaten egg yolks. Mix well and transfer to a buttered mold.

  2. Place the mold in a pan of water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.

  3. Once done, set the mold in cold water for a minute, then turn it out onto a platter.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, heat milk in a saucepan, whisk in cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of butter until boiling.

  2. Remove from heat and fold in the well-beaten egg whites and a dash of cayenne.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the body of the loaf and supplies its main flavor and protein.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps the loaf set firm when baked.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the loaf while adding moisture.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the loaf a tender, sliceable texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moisture in the loaf.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it comes to a boil.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites for the sauce. Egg whites are delicate and lose their volume if overmixed or heated too long. Folding gently after removing the sauce from heat keeps the sauce light and prevents the egg from scrambling.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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