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Salmon Pudding

A baked salmon and butter sauce with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Salmon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the sauce

  1. If using, sauté the onion until soft.

  2. In a bowl, mix melted butter and flour until smooth. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool, then stir in the beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a pudding dish, layer cooked salmon and the sauce until full.

  2. Top with grated bread crumbs.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes until browned.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Binds the sauce so it sets into a sliceable pudding when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor through the flour-based sauce.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a smooth sauce that holds the salmon together.
Cooked salmon
Provides the main protein and flavor, set in the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Forms a top layer that browns in the oven, adding crispness.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before adding the egg. Adding beaten egg to a hot butter-flour sauce can scramble it, leaving lumps instead of a smooth custard-like binder that sets evenly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, egg, salmon, bread):

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

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