Name: Salmon in Cases
Ingredients: 2-3 slices of salmon; sweet oil; chopped mushrooms; mixed spice; pepper; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Mushroom and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Salmon in Cases

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Rub the salmon slices with sweet oil, chopped mushrooms, mixed spice, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Make paper boxes the size of the salmon slices.
Place the seasoned salmon in the boxes.
Bake in the oven and serve in the cases with sauce à l'Espagnole.

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.

Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Salmon + mushroomtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together558 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,446 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).