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Salmoned Mould

A steamed salmon dish baked in a mold with butter, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Salmoned Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the salmon and melted butter, and beat well.

  2. In another bowl, mix the bread crumbs and egg yolks together.

  3. Pour the bread crumb mixture over the salmon without mixing.

  4. Add the mixed parsley, pepper, and salt to the salmon mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer to a buttered mold and steam for 1 hour.

  2. Serve with parsley sauce.

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 + peppertop 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 of the mould and provides the savoury flavour and protein structure.
Eggs
Yolks bind the mixture and help it set firm as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mould a tender, lightly textured body.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the salmon from drying out during steaming.

The step that matters

Pour the bread crumb mixture over the salmon without mixing. Leaving the bread crumb and egg yolk layer unstirred keeps it distinct on top of the salmon. Overmixing can make the mould dense and uneven once it sets.

Swap the parsley

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