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Salmon Souffle, Hot

A baked salmon soufflé made with butter, flour, egg yolks, egg whites, salmon, cream, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and lime share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 54 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Salmon Souffle, Hot

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.

Make the base

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

  2. In a saucepan, blend the flour and butter over low heat.

  3. Add the cream and milk, and bring to a boil.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

  5. Add the sieved salmon and mix well.

Fold and bake

  1. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a prepared baking dish, leaving room for rising.

  3. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and dot with butter.

  4. Bake for about 30 minutes until risen and golden.

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. Tarragon + limetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + tarragontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together788 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air so the soufflé rises and becomes light.
Egg yolks
Stirred into the hot base, they enrich the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Flour
Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the milk and cream base.
Cooked salmon
Provides the main flavor and body of the soufflé.
Milk and cream
Form the liquid base that gives the soufflé moisture and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or overmixing deflates the batter, so it bakes flat and dense.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, tarragon, vinegar, salmon, cream):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, tarragon, vinegar, salmon, cream. 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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