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Steamed Salmon Loaf

A steamed loaf of shredded salmon mixed with bread crumbs, milk, and seasonings, topped with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Steamed Salmon Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Make the loaf

  1. Mix the shredded salmon, common salt, soaked bread crumbs, milk, celery salt, butter, and pepper until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a plain or bordered mold and steam until cooked through.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine 1 cup of milk, corn starch, egg yolk, salmon juice, and 1 tablespoon of butter in a double boiler for the sauce.

  2. Boil the sauce mixture until thickened, stirring constantly.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the soaked bread crumbs and help the loaf set when steamed.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and eggs, adding moisture and a tender texture to the loaf.
Salmon
Provides the main body and flavor of the loaf.
Corn starch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and helps it thicken smoothly.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce mixture until thickened, stirring constantly. Corn starch needs to reach a boil to thicken fully, while constant stirring prevents lumps and keeps the egg yolk from scrambling against the hot base.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, bread, egg, milk, butter, walnut, pepper. 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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