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Salmon Pie, with Rice

A baked salmon pie layered with rice, onion, eggs, and butter, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Salmon Pie, with Rice

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

  1. Line the bottom and sides of a dish with cold boiled rice.

  2. Pound the boiled onion with salt, pepper, and butter until smooth.

  3. Spread the onion mixture over the rice.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the sliced salmon on top, seasoning with salt and Cayenne.

  2. Sprinkle chopped hard-boiled eggs over the salmon.

  3. Add another layer of rice and spread 2 ounces of butter on top.

  4. Cover with pastry and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, adding sauce if desired.

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. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main filling and provides the substance of the pie.
Boiled rice
Forms the base and upper layer, adding bulk and absorbing moisture from the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and keeping the layers moist.
Hard-boiled eggs
Adds richness and body to the filling as they are chopped and scattered over the salmon.
Boiled onion
Adds savoury flavour and moisture to the onion layer once pounded smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, rice, butter, pepper, egg. 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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