Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Bake Salmon
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 the sauce
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the flour.
Add the gravy, port wine, catsup, anchovies, and cayenne to the saucepan.
Stir until the anchovies dissolve, then strain the sauce.
Bake and serve
Place the salmon slices in a dish and pour the sauce over them.
Cover the dish with buttered paper and bake in the oven.
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.
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Flour + port winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,167 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Salmon + port winetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together72 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Salmon
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently under the sauce.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and carries the flour, giving it a rich, smooth base.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and gravy into a smooth sauce.
- Anchovies
- Dissolve into the sauce, adding savoury depth.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stir until the anchovies dissolve, then strain the sauce. Anchovies must fully break down into the warm sauce so no pieces remain. Straining then removes any stray fragments and lumps, leaving a smooth sauce that coats the salmon evenly.
“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
You might also like
Salmon Salad155 recipes
Salmon Croquettes129 recipes
Canned Salmon14 recipes
Smoked Salmon14 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.