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Baked Salmon

A salmon baked with butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, served with a milk and vinegar gravy and topped with cracker crumbs, celery, 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 greased baking pan and dot with butter.

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

  5. Cover with buttered 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, salt, and mashed potato; bring to a boil.

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

  3. Garnish with celery tops and 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
Is the main protein that cooks through and turns tender in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the fish brown while basting.
Milk
Forms the base of the gravy, adding creaminess and body.
Irish potato
Thickens the milk gravy through its starch as it simmers.
Pepper vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Basting and covering the fish while it bakes. Salmon dries out quickly in dry oven heat. Frequent basting with butter adds moisture and fat, and the buttered paper cover slows surface drying so the fish stays moist and tender.

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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