Name: Salmon Loaf
Ingredients: 1 can salmon; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup bread crumbs; 3 eggs (well beaten); salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, combine the salmon, sweet milk, bread crumbs, and beaten eggs.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the mixture into a loaf pan.

Bake

Bake 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.

Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,485 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Salmon + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,577 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Provides the main body and flavour of the loaf.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and give the loaf a softer, more tender texture.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture so the loaf stays tender rather than dry.

“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.