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Salmon a LA Mold

A steamed salmon dish made with eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, served with drawn butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon a LA Mold

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the salmon finely, ensuring all bones are removed.

  2. Melt the butter gently and mix it into the salmon until smooth.

Mix and steam

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add the bread crumbs, mixing well.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and parsley, then combine it with the salmon.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold and steam for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve with drawn butter sauce poured around it.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body and flavour of the dish, held together by the other binders.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as they heat, giving the loaf its firm structure.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the salmon tender rather than dry.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add bulk, giving a softer, more sliceable texture.

The step that matters

Steaming the mold. Egg proteins set gently at moderate heat. If the steam is too hot or the mold is overcooked, the eggs tighten and turn rubbery or grainy, so keep the heat steady and the mold covered.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, butter, bread, 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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