Name: Baked Salmon
Ingredients: 1 can or 1 pound of salmon; 5 tablespoons bread crumbs, browned and rolled; 1 pint sweet milk; butter the size of a small egg (omit if using cream); salt and pepper to taste; lemon, for serving; wafers, for serving

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Baked Salmon

Ingredients

1 can or 1 pound of salmon
5 tablespoons bread crumbs, browned and rolled
1 pint sweet milk
butter the size of a small egg (omit if using cream)
salt and pepper to taste
lemon, for serving
wafers, for serving

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

Drain the salmon in a colander and rinse with water.
Remove all bones and skin, then mince the salmon.

Mix and bake

Mix in the browned bread crumbs, sweet milk, and butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Transfer to a fish dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Serve

Serve with lemon and wafers.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 provides its flavor.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and help bind the minced salmon into a set mixture.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat for a softer texture and flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Baking only until the mixture firms keeps it moist; overbaking dries out the salmon and milk, leaving a crumbly texture.

Swap the lemon

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

Lemonthe original
Coconutfits about as well
Figfits about as well
Vanillafits less well

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