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Salmon in a Mould

A steamed salmon casserole with eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, and a tomato‑cornstarch sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 in a Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat your steamer.

  2. In a bowl, mix the salmon with melted butter.

  3. In another bowl, beat the eggs and stir in the bread crumbs.

Make and steam the mold

  1. Combine all ingredients and season with salt, pepper, and parsley.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a buttered mold.

  3. Steam for 1 hour.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, heat the milk and thicken it with corn starch.

  2. Stir in butter, salmon liquor, and tomato catsup.

  3. Carefully add the egg last.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 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 + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 mold and gives it its savory flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when steamed, holding the mold together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the eggs and salmon, helping keep the texture soft and tender.
Corn starch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Hot milk
Forms the base of the sauce, which the starch thickens.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness to the salmon mixture and the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce with corn starch. Corn starch only thickens once the milk is hot enough for its granules to swell. Stirring while heating keeps it smooth and prevents lumps.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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