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Salmon in a Mould

A baked salmon casserole steamed in a mold with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon in a Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Drain the liquid from the salmon.

  2. Remove the bones and skin from the salmon and chop it finely.

  3. Mix the chopped salmon with the melted butter until smooth.

  4. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, minced parsley, and celery if desired.

  5. Beat the eggs well.

  6. Add the cracker crumbs, mixing everything thoroughly.

  7. Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold.

Steam and make the sauce

  1. Steam the mixture for one hour.

  2. Boil the milk for the sauce.

  3. Thicken the boiled milk with corn starch.

  4. Add the salmon liquid, butter, and one egg to the sauce, mixing carefully.

  5. Boil the sauce for one minute.

Serve

  1. Turn the salmon out of the mold.

  2. Pour the sauce around the salmon.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Celery + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together920 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its main flavor and texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when steamed, holding the salmon together in the mold.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the mixture hold its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the salmon mixture and enriches the sauce.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, which is thickened to a smooth, creamy consistency.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiled milk into a sauce by swelling as it heats.

The step that matters

Steam the mixture for one hour. Steaming gently sets the egg and cracker mixture into a firm loaf. Too much heat or boiling can make it rubbery, cracked, or crumbly, so keep the water at a gentle simmer.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, pepper, parsley, egg, milk, corn):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, pepper, parsley, egg, milk, corn. 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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