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 ↓
Dried Salmon with Poached Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the salmon
Soak the salmon slices in milk for 3 hours.
Remove the salmon from the milk and wipe them dry.
Broil the salmon over a clear fire until cooked.
Assemble and serve
Serve the salmon on fried or toasted bread.
Top the salmon with 8 poached eggs.
In a small saucepan, combine essence of veal, cream, and egg yolks to make a sauce.
Pour the sauce around the toasts.
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.
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,485 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Salmon + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,577 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried salmon
- Provides the main savory flavor and firm, meaty body of the dish.
- Milk
- Soaking in milk softens the dried salmon and mellows its salty intensity.
- Eggs
- Poached eggs add richness and a soft, runny yolk that sits on top of the salmon.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce as they heat, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
- Cream
- Adds fat and body, making the sauce smooth and rich.
The step that matters
Combining the sauce ingredients. Egg yolks can scramble if heated too quickly. Gentle, low heat while stirring lets them thicken the cream and veal essence into a smooth sauce.
“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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