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Salmon a LA Mold

A steamed salmon dish cooked in a mold with eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 the salmon

  1. Remove all bones from the salmon and chop it finely.

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

Make the mixture

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

  2. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and parsley.

  3. Combine the seasoned mixture with the salmon.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for one hour.

  2. 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
Provides the main body and flavor of the dish.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the salmon.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Steaming the mold. Steam gently and keep the water at a steady simmer; high heat or boiling water can make the egg-based mixture puff and turn rubbery, while steady gentle heat lets the eggs set into a tender, sliceable custard-like texture.

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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