Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Dried Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the salmon
Cut the salmon into layers.
Combine the salmon and chopped hard-boiled eggs in a saucepan.
Make the sauce
Add the thin cream and butter mixed with flour.
Skim the mixture and stir until it is boiling hot.
Serve
Form a wall of mashed potatoes around the inner edge of a dish.
Pour the salmon mixture into the center of the dish.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 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
- Salmon
- Forms the main body of the dish and supplies its flavour.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add body and a soft, rich texture to the mixture.
- Thin cream
- Adds moisture and richness, creating a smooth sauce around the salmon.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and with flour helps thicken the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and cream into a smoother, more cohesive sauce.
- Mashed potatoes
- Form a border that holds the salmon mixture in the dish.
The step that matters
Stir the butter and flour into the cream. Flour mixed with butter must be fully combined and heated so it thickens the cream evenly. If it is added in clumps or not heated enough, the sauce can stay lumpy or taste raw from the flour.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, cream, butter, flour):
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, cream, butter, flour. 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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