Skip to main content
Main

Baked Salmon

A whole salmon baked with butter, then finished in a milk and vinegar gravy and topped with cracker crumbs, celery, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sprinkle the salmon with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Place the fish in a baking pan on a small grating and dot with butter.

  4. Bake in the hot oven, basting frequently with butter until browned.

  5. Cover the fish with a buttered sheet of white paper to prevent drying.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once cooked and tender, transfer the fish to a hot dish.

  2. In a saucepan, combine milk, pepper vinegar, additional salt, and the mashed potato; bring to a boil.

  3. Pour the gravy over the fish and sprinkle with browned cracker crumbs.

  4. Garnish with bleached tops of celery and curled parsley.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 becomes flaky and tender as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and encourages browning while basting the fish in the oven.
Milk
Forms the base of the gravy, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Mashed irish potato
Thickens the milk-based gravy through its starch, giving it body.
Pepper vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that cuts the richness of the milk and fish.

The step that matters

Covering the fish with buttered paper. Salmon dries out quickly in dry oven heat, and the paper shields the surface while the fish cooks through gently. Basting with butter adds fat that helps keep the flesh moist and promotes browning.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, butter, milk, vinegar, potato, parsley):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, butter, milk, vinegar, potato, parsley. 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.

More baked salmon recipes

Trout 17with Breadcrumbs 8with Cream Sauce 7in Slices 4with Mashed Potatoes 4Over Mashed Potatoes 3 See all 70 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesSalmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes