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Salmon Steak

A grilled salmon steak seasoned with salt, pepper, and powdered crackers, 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 well and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Sift powdered cracker over the salmon.

Cook

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

  2. Cook the salmon until the side facing the fire is brown, then carefully turn it using a batter-cake turner.

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

Serve

  1. Season again with coarse sea salt and black pepper, pour melted butter over it, 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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, moist interior when heated gently.
Powdered cracker
Coats the surface so it browns and forms a light crust over the fish.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the finished salmon, carrying flavour across the surface.

The step that matters

Cooking over hot coals. Fish is delicate and can stick or break when turned. Letting the first side brown fully before turning helps it release cleanly and hold its shape.

“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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