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Salmon Pudding, to Be Served Hot or Cold

A baked salmon pudding made with boiled salmon, bread crumbs, anchovy essence, cream, salt, cayenne, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Salmon Pudding, to Be Served Hot or Cold

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

  1. Pound or chop the salmon finely, or pass it through a sieve.

Make the pudding

  1. Blend the salmon with the bread crumbs, essence of anchovies, cream, salt, cayenne, and whisked eggs until well combined.

  2. Press the mixture into a buttered deep dish or mold.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for one 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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Salmon + breadtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together941 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable texture as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture into the dish. Packing the mixture firmly and evenly removes air pockets so the pudding bakes into a dense, uniform texture and slices cleanly rather than crumbling.

“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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