Name: Fish Entree
Ingredients: 1 can salmon; 2 or 3 eggs, well beaten; 1 cup breadcrumbs; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 small piece of butter; 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped fine (for sauce)

Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish Entree

Ingredients

Directions

Make the patties

In a bowl, combine the salmon, beaten eggs, breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, and butter.

Steam and serve

Steam the mixture for 2 hours.
Serve with a drawn butter sauce, adding the chopped hard-boiled eggs.

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.

Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,485 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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: Bind the mixture and set it firm when steamed.
Breadcrumbs: Absorb moisture and give the patties body and a tender texture.
Salmon: Provides the main body and flavor of the patties.
Butter: Adds richness and fat for flavor and moistness.

“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.