Why it works: Salmon and avocado work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 183 recipes mention both. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Lay the salmon steaks in a thickly buttered shallow fireproof dish.
Make the sauce
Blend the avocado flesh with fresh cream, Grouse Whisky, salt, and cayenne pepper until a smooth creamy mixture forms.
Stir in the chopped fennel.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture over the salmon steaks.
Cover with foil and bake at 190 °C (gas mark 5) for 35 minutes.
Serve with quartered lemons.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Salmon + avocadotop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together183 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Fennel + lemontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together723 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fennel + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,216 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salmon steaks
- Form the main protein that cooks gently under the sauce, staying moist.
- Fresh cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
- Avocado
- Gives the sauce a thick, creamy body and a mild, buttery flavour.
- Grouse whisky
- Adds aromatic flavour to the sauce, which is mostly carried by the alcohol and dissolves into the cream.
The step that matters
Cover with foil and bake at 190 °C (gas mark 5) for 35 minutes. Covering the dish traps steam so the salmon cooks gently and stays moist, while the sauce thickens. Baking too long dries the fish and can cause the sauce to separate or toughen.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, cream, avocado, fennel, whisky, pepper):
- Lemonthe original
- Limeabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, cream, avocado, fennel, whisky, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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