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Salmon Loaf

Salmon loaf is a baked dish made with salmon, bread crumbs, vegetables, egg, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Loaf

Ingredients

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the loaf

  1. Beat the egg lightly and add the water.

  2. Mix in the salmon, bread crumbs, chopped green pepper, chopped onion, salt, and melted butter.

  3. Mold the mixture into a loaf shape and place it in a greased pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until set and lightly browned.

  2. Serve plain or with tomato sauce.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the loaf a soft, tender body.
Salmon
Forms the main body of the loaf and provides its flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the loaf stay tender.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory flavor throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Mold the mixture into a loaf shape. The mixture is loose and held together mainly by the beaten egg and crumbs, so it should be packed firmly to keep its shape while baking and setting.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, 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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