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Salmon Pudding

A steamed salmon pudding made with salmon, bread crumbs, butter, parsley, salt, pepper, egg yolks, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Salmon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the oil from the salmon and save it for the sauce.

  2. Chop the salmon very fine.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately.

Assemble and steam

  1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a buttered dish.

  3. Steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 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
Provides the main body and flavor of the pudding.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness as the pudding sets.
Egg whites
Set during steaming to give the pudding a light, firm structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help hold the salmon together.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister texture.

The step that matters

Steam gently for the full time. Steam heats the pudding gently and evenly. Egg proteins set slowly, so cutting the time leaves the centre loose, while overly fierce heat can make the texture rubbery.

Swap the parsley

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

  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, bread, butter, pepper, egg. 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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