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Salmon on Toast

Salmon on toast topped with a creamy sauce and garnished with parsley and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Salmon on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Drain part of the oil from the can of salmon.

  2. Heat the salmon with ½ cup of water, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Make the cream sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter, then stir in 1 tablespoon of flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add 1 cup of milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Place the heated salmon on the toast and pour the hot cream sauce over it.

  2. Garnish with parsley and slices of lemon.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main protein and body of the topping, flaking into the sauce as it heats.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and its fat coats the flour to start the roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter as a roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce, giving it body and a mild, creamy taste.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the roux. Adding milk gradually while stirring keeps the starch evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, butter, flour, milk, lemon):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, butter, flour, milk, lemon. 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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