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Salmon Steak

A salmon steak seasoned with salt, pepper, and powdered crackers, grilled over coals and finished with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,481 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Salmon Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry the salmon steak well.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Sift powdered cracker over the salmon.

Grill

  1. Grease a gridiron with butter or lard and place it over hot coals.

  2. Cook the salmon until the side facing the fire is brown.

  3. Carefully turn the salmon using a batter-cake turner.

  4. Cook until both sides are light brown.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer to a hot dish, season again with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour melted butter over the salmon, cover, and serve.

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. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon steak
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky texture once heated through.
Powdered cracker
Forms a light crust on the surface that browns during grilling.
Butter or lard
Greases the gridiron to prevent sticking and adds richness when poured over at the end.

The step that matters

Turning the salmon. Turn the steak carefully once the first side is browned, so the cracker crust and flesh stay intact. Forcing it early tears the fish and crust off the grill, since the surface only releases cleanly after it has set.

“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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