Name: Coquille of Salmon
Ingredients: 1 pound cold salmon, flaked; 3 ounces butter; ½ cup picked shrimps; 6 truffles, sliced; 6 mushrooms, sliced; ½ cup consomme; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; fried bread crumbs; small pieces of butter for topping

Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Coquille of Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.

Make the filling

Add the shrimps, truffles, mushrooms, consommé, and coarse sea salt; let it simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in the flaked salmon and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Fill and bake

Fill six buttered scallop shells with the mixture.
Top each shell with fried bread crumbs and small pieces of butter.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 minutes and serve.

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.

Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 filling.
Butter: Adds richness and carries flavour through the filling and topping.
Mushrooms: Add moisture and earthy savoury flavour as they cook.
Truffles: Add a concentrated earthy aroma to the filling.
Shrimps: Contribute sweetness and a tender, seafood texture.
Consommé: Adds savoury liquid that keeps the filling moist while it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmering the filling with the salmon. Salmon is already cooked and flaked, so it only needs to warm through. Simmering it too long toughens and dries the fish, and the filling loses its moisture.

“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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Coquille of Salmon