Name: Creamed Salmon on Toast
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 pint hot milk; 1 cup canned salmon, bones and skin removed; 1 cup finely chopped roasted peanuts; 3 hard-boiled egg whites, chopped

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Creamed Salmon on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in the flour, salt, and cayenne until well combined.
Gradually add the hot milk, stirring until the mixture is smooth and thick.

Finish and serve

Fold in the canned salmon, chopped peanuts, and chopped egg whites.
Serve hot on buttered toast or in ramekins.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + peanuttop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,048 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peanuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,427 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Enriches the sauce and carries the flour, giving a rich, smooth base.
Flour: Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, thick sauce as it cooks.
Hot milk: Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a creamy sauce.
Canned salmon: Provides the main fish flavour and flaky texture folded into the sauce.
Roasted peanuts: Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour to the creamy mixture.
Hard-boiled egg whites: Add soft body and mild texture that blends into the sauce.

The step that matters

Gradually add the hot milk, stirring until smooth and thick. Adding the milk slowly and stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, preventing lumps. Constant stirring lets the starch gelatinize as the sauce heats, so it thickens smoothly rather than clumping.

Swap the peanut

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

Almondfits better
Walnutfits better
Peasfits better
Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, milk, salmon, 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.

Salmon Salad155 recipes

Salmon Croquettes129 recipes

Canned Salmon14 recipes

Smoked Salmon14 recipes

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Creamed Salmon on Toast