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Baked Salmon

A salmon baked with butter, milk, pepper vinegar, mashed potato, and topped with cracker crumbs, celery tops, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 salt and pepper.

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

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

  5. Cover with buttered white paper to prevent drying out.

  6. Once cooked and tender, transfer to a hot dish.

Make the gravy and serve

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

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

  3. Garnish with celery tops 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, cooked gently until tender and flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and promotes browning as it bastes the fish in the hot oven.
Milk
Forms the base of the gravy, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Mashed potato
Thickens the gravy through its starch as the mixture comes to a boil.
Pepper vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the creamy gravy and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Bringing the gravy to a boil. Milk can scorch or separate if it boils too hard or too long on direct heat. Stirring the mashed potato in well keeps the gravy smooth, while the starch thickens it as it heats.

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.

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