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Curried Salmon

A salmon dish flavored with curry powder, onion, and lemon, simmered in a light sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Curried Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Two hours before serving, drain the salmon and remove any bones or skin.

Make the sauce

  1. In a skillet, heat the olive oil and brown the minced onion.

  2. Stir in the flour and curry powder until well blended.

  3. Gradually add the hot water and salt, stirring continuously.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the salmon and heat until very hot.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice before serving.

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. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Salmon + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,942 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 flaky body of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the curry liquid into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Olive oil
Carries the curry flavours and helps the onion brown.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm spiced aroma that defines the dish.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and body to the sauce once browned.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and curry powder. Cooking the flour briefly in the hot oil removes its raw taste and helps it thicken evenly. Adding the hot water gradually while stirring prevents lumps from forming in the sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Kalefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, olive, flour, 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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