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Salmon in Mold

A steamed salmon custard made with eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon in Mold

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove skin and bones from the salmon and mash it smooth with a silver spoon.

  2. Mix in the melted butter until it forms a smooth paste.

Combine and season

  1. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs and bread crumbs.

  2. Add the egg and breadcrumb mixture to the salmon mixture.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, parsley, mace, and celery salt to taste.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a buttered pudding dish.

  2. Steam for 1 hour.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the bulk and main flavour of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when steamed, giving the pudding its structure.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together as it cooks.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam gently and keep the water from boiling hard. Egg proteins set as they heat, so high or uneven heat can make the pudding rough, watery or cracked.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, butter, bread, pepper, parsley, celery. 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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