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Salmon Souffle

A baked salmon custard with milk, eggs, flour, butter, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salmon Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Add the beaten eggs to the milk.

  3. Stir in the flour mixed with a little milk.

  4. Add the butter.

  5. Boil until thick, stirring constantly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease a baking dish.

  2. Layer salmon and dressing alternately until all is used.

  3. Spread bread crumbs on top.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Set and bind the custard, giving the soufflé its structure as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the milk and eggs into a stable, sliceable dressing.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the dressing, keeping it moist and creamy.
Salmon
Provides the main flavor and protein, layered through the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the dressing.

The step that matters

Boil until thick, stirring constantly. Flour thickens only when its starch gelatinizes in boiling liquid. Stirring prevents scorching and lumps, and the dressing must be thick enough to hold its layers once cooled slightly.

“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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