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Tranches De Saumon À LA Matelote

Salmon slices served with a demi‑glace sauce, poached oysters, glazed onions, fish quenelles, mushroom caps, and a cooked crayfish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and oyster match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 671 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Cut two thick slices from the center of a salmon.

  2. Cook the salmon in a good court-bouillon with red wine for 15 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain and degrease part of the cooking liquid.

  2. Reduce the liquid to a demi-glace.

  3. Gradually incorporate the demi-glace into 3 deciliters of reduced espagnole sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Poach a layer of stuffing in the center of a long dish.

  2. Place the salmon slices on top of the stuffing to prevent slipping.

  3. Arrange a bouquet of poached oysters on one side of the dish.

  4. Arrange a bouquet of glazed small onions on the other side of the dish.

  5. Garnish both ends with fish quenelles and peeled mushroom caps, separated by a large cooked crayfish.

  6. Lightly cover the garnishes with a few tablespoons of the sauce.

  7. Serve the rest in a sauceboat.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Salmon + oystertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together671 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + fishtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Red wine + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Salmon + fishtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Fish + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together444 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main protein, cooked gently in court-bouillon so it stays moist and tender.
Espagnole sauce
Provides a rich, savory base that gives the dish its body and depth of flavor.
Red wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the court-bouillon, flavoring the poached salmon.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and a rich aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the salmon in court-bouillon. Salmon is delicate and dries out or breaks apart if the liquid boils hard. Keeping the poaching liquid at a gentle simmer cooks the flesh evenly and keeps it moist and intact.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, red wine, sauce, oyster, fish, mushroom, crayfish):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, red wine, sauce, oyster, fish, mushroom, crayfish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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