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Dessert

Coulibiac De Saumon

A French pastry filled with salmon, semolina, mushrooms, onions, eggs, and vesiga, baked to a golden crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Coulibiac De Saumon

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fillings

  1. Soak dried vesiga in cold water for 4 hours.

  2. Cook the soaked vesiga in white consomme for 3.5 hours.

  3. Stiffen salmon fillets in butter.

  4. Fry chopped mushrooms and onion in butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out brioche paste into strips 12 inches long, 8 inches wide, and ¼ inch thick.

  2. Layer semolina (or rice), salmon, chopped vesiga, eggs, mushrooms, and onion on the paste.

  3. Moisten the edges of the paste, bring the ends together, and pinch the edges to seal.

  4. Place another strip of paste on top, let it rise for 45 minutes on a baking tin.

  5. Spread melted butter over the top, sprinkle breadcrumbs, and make two holes for steam to escape.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  3. Brioche + salmontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Brioche + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together187 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brioche paste
Forms the rich, tender enclosing crust that bakes golden around the filling.
Salmon fillets
Provide the main protein; stiffening them in butter firms the flesh before baking.
Vesiga
Adds a gelatinous, moist texture when cooked slowly in consomme.
Semolina or rice
Cooked in consomme, it absorbs liquid and keeps the filling moist and set.
Eggs
Chopped hard-boiled eggs add richness and help bind the filling.
Mushrooms
Fried in butter, they contribute savory, earthy flavor and moisture control.

The step that matters

Sealing and proofing the paste. Well-sealed edges keep juices and steam inside the filling, while the rise lets the dough expand so it bakes light rather than dense and leaking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brioche, salmon, mushroom, semolina, egg, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brioche, salmon, mushroom, semolina, egg, butter. 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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