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Salmon Roll

A baked salmon roll served with a sauce made from the salmon liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Roll

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the salmon loaf

  1. Mince the salmon, draining off the liquid for the sauce.

  2. Mix the minced fish with melted butter, bread crumbs, seasoning, and beaten eggs.

  3. Put the mixture into a buttered mold.

  4. Bake in a covered dripping pan of boiling water at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  5. After baking, set the mold in cold water for 1 minute to release it.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, heat milk with 1 tablespoon of butter in a double boiler until scalding.

  2. Stir in a thickening made of 1 tablespoon of butter rubbed with 1 tablespoon of corn starch.

  3. Add the reserved salmon liquid, beaten raw egg, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Remove from heat and let stand covered in water for 3 minutes before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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 loaf.
Eggs
Bind the minced fish together and help the loaf set when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the loaf a firmer, sliceable texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the loaf and enriches the sauce.
Corn starch
Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and coats the spoon.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, giving it body and creaminess.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten raw egg to the hot sauce. Raw egg can scramble if the sauce is too hot or added too quickly. Stirring steadily while the sauce is just off the boil helps it blend in smoothly and thicken gently.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, bread, egg, pepper, milk, sauce. 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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