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Salmon Loaf

Salmon loaf is a baked dish of flaked salmon mixed with butter, eggs, breadcrumbs, milk, and seasoned, topped with a cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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

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

  2. Flake the salmon into small pieces and remove any bones.

  3. In a bowl, combine the salmon, melted butter, beaten eggs, bread crumbs, milk, salt, and pepper. Mix well and pour into a buttered pan.

Bake and make the sauce

  1. Bake for 1 hour.

  2. For the cream sauce, heat the milk to boiling.

  3. Whisk in the corn starch and butter, then season with salt and pepper. Just before removing from heat, stir in the beaten egg.

Serve

  1. Turn the salmon loaf out onto a platter and pour the cream sauce over it.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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
Provides the main body and flavor of the loaf.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firmly when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the loaf a tender, sliceable texture.
Milk
Adds moisture to the loaf and, in the sauce, forms the base that thickens.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the loaf and to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten egg into the sauce just before removing it from heat. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding it at the end and removing the pan promptly gives a smooth sauce; overheating can cause it to curdle or turn grainy.

“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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