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Salmon Steak

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Sift powdered cracker over the salmon.

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

Cook and serve

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

  2. Carefully turn it using a batter-cake turner.

  3. Once both sides are light brown, place the salmon in a hot dish.

  4. Season again with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  5. Pour melted butter over it.

  6. 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
Is the main protein, cooked over direct heat until browned and flaky.
Powdered cracker
Coats the surface, helping it brown and form a light crust.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the finished fish.

The step that matters

Cook the salmon until the side facing the fire is brown. Salmon is delicate and can stick or break when turned too early. Letting the first side brown fully releases it from the grate and builds flavour through browning.

“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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