Why it works: Bread and butter 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 with Cream Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the salmon
Heat the canned salmon.
Season it with salt and pepper.
Make the dressing
In a saucepan, heat the milk.
Stir in the flour and butter until thickened.
Season the dressing with salt and pepper.
Assemble and serve
Place the salmon on thin slices of buttered toast.
Pour it over the salmon on toast.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the toast and helps thicken the dressing with flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, sauce-like dressing.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the cream dressing.
- Salmon
- Provides the main protein and savoury flavour of the dish.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour and butter until thickened. Flour must be fully incorporated into warm milk and cooked while stirring, or it forms lumps and the dressing stays pasty instead of smooth and thick.
“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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