Why it works: Salmon and tarragon work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and 218 recipes mention both. Both carry eugenol, which smells clove, spicy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Preheat broiler.
Coat broiler pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Rinse salmon and pat dry.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper on each side.
Broil
Place salmon on broiler pan and sprinkle with half the tarragon.
Place about 3 inches from heat source and broil 3 to 4 minutes.
Turn, sprinkle with remaining tarragon and broil 3 to 4 minutes until fish turns from translucent to opaque.
Top each with a lemon slice.
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 + tarragontop 16% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together218 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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Tarragon + lemontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together884 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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Pepper + tarragontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,691 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Salmon + lemontop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salmon steaks
- Forms the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
- Dried tarragon
- Adds a sharp, anise-like aroma that flavours the fish.
- Lemon slices
- Add bright acidity that cuts the richness of the salmon.
The step that matters
Broil until the fish turns opaque. Salmon cooks fast under direct broiler heat. Once the flesh turns from translucent to opaque it is cooked through, and going longer dries it out and toughens the texture.
“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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