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Salmon Loaf

A baked loaf made from canned salmon, butter, milk, eggs, parsley, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 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

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix together the salmon, melted butter, sweet milk, eggs, chopped parsley, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a mold or deep pan and cover tightly.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the mold in a larger pan filled with hot water.

  2. Boil the water for 1 hour.

  3. Remove from the water, let cool, slice, and 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. Parsley + peppertop 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 + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Egg + breadtop 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during cooking to give the loaf structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and soak up the milk and butter, giving the loaf a softer texture.
Salmon
Forms the main body of the loaf and supplies its flavor and protein structure.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Covering the mold tightly and keeping the water hot. A tight cover traps steam so the loaf cooks gently and stays moist. If the water cools or boils away, the eggs may set unevenly and the loaf can turn dry or dense.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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