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Fish Cream

A baked casserole of canned salmon, milk, flour, butter, eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese, onion, parsley, and bay leaves.

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

Fish Cream

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 sauce

  1. Remove bones from the canned salmon or boiled fish and break it into small pieces.

  2. In a pot, bring 1 quart of milk, onion, parsley, and bay leaves to a boil.

  3. Strain the mixture through a colander.

  4. Mix 1 cup of flour with cold milk until smooth, then add to the strained mixture along with 1 cup of butter.

  5. Beat 3 eggs and stir them into the mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the fish and cream mixture in a baking dish until full.

  2. Top with cream on both the top and bottom.

  3. Sprinkle 1 cup of bread crumbs and ½ cup of grated cheese on top.

  4. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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 casserole as the fish layer.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable cream sauce.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the sauce and give the casserole structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smoother, silkier texture.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream sauce that surrounds the fish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk-flour mixture to a smooth sauce before adding eggs. Flour must be fully dispersed in cold milk before heating, or it clumps. Eggs added to a very hot mixture can scramble, so stir them in gently once the sauce has cooled slightly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, milk, flour, butter, egg, bread, cheese. 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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