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Salmon Bisque

A creamy soup made with minced salmon, bread crumbs, butter, water, eggs, parsley, pepper, and salt.

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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the warm butter into the minced salmon.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Put the mixture over the fire with the boiling water.

  4. Cook gently for 30 minutes.

  5. Stir in the bread crumbs and parsley.

  6. Simmer for 5 minutes.

  7. Add the beaten eggs and stir well.

  8. Pour out.

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. 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

Minced salmon
Forms the main body of the bisque and gives it its flavor.
Bread crumbs
Thickens the liquid and gives the bisque body.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor through the salmon.
Raw eggs
Bind the mixture and thicken it as they set with heat.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten eggs. Eggs thicken when heated, but if the mixture is too hot or boils hard after they go in, they can curdle and turn grainy. Stir well and keep the heat gentle.

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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