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Escalloped Salmon

A baked salmon dish layered with butter, cracker crumbs, tomato, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Escalloped Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Flake the cold boiled salmon into fine pieces.

  2. Butter a pudding dish and cover the bottom with cracker crumbs.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the salmon on top, adding bits of butter, salt, pepper, a little tomato, and some milk.

  2. Repeat the layers until the dish is full, finishing with buttered crumbs on top.

  3. Add enough milk to make the dish moist.

  4. Bake for 30 minutes in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Salmon + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,577 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled salmon
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its main flavor and protein structure.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and bind the layers, giving a soft yet structured texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top crumbs brown during baking.
Milk
Supplies moisture that keeps the layers tender as they bake.
Tomato
Adds acidity and a bright, fresh flavor that balances the rich fish.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, pepper, 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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