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Salmon Scallops

Salmon scallops are baked salmon mixture in scallop shells topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the salmon

  1. Open the can of salmon a few hours before using.

  2. Pick the fish fine, removing all bits of bone or skin.

Make the filling

  1. Stir in the egg, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Beat the fish into the hot drawn butter.

  3. Remove from heat and fill buttered scallop shells or small pans with the salmon mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle thickly with bread crumbs and dot with bits of butter.

  2. Brown lightly in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Serve directly from the shells.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 filling and provides the dish's flavor.
Egg
Binds the fish mixture so it holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the creamy filling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the fish and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Beat the fish into the hot drawn butter. Mixing the salmon into butter that is too hot or too cool can make the filling greasy or loose. Keeping the fish flaked fine and evenly blended helps the mixture bind and set smoothly when baked.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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