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Salmon Cutlets

Salmon cutlets are pan‑fried pieces of salmon cooked with butter and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Salmon Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and fry until pale brown.

  3. Stir in the salmon cut into small square pieces.

  4. Gently heat the salmon through without boiling for about 1 hour.

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. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + salmontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Onion + salmontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries flavor through the pan.
Onion
Adds aroma and gentle sweetness as it softens and browns.
Salmon
Forms the main body of the dish, setting into tender flakes when heated gently.

The step that matters

Gently heat the salmon without boiling. High heat tightens the fish proteins and squeezes out moisture, leaving it dry and firm. Gentle heat keeps the salmon moist and tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, salmon. 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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