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Fresh Salmon Fried

A dish of fresh salmon slices fried and served with a butter‑flour anchovy gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fresh Salmon Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Cut the salmon into slices ¾ inch thick.

  2. Dredge the slices in flour or dip them in beaten eggs and coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the salmon in hot oil until light brown.

  2. For the gravy, melt the butter in a pan, then dredge with flour and let it brown.

  3. Add cold water and a little anchovy sauce, then boil for a few minutes.

  4. Serve the gravy with the fried salmon.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through while the coating turns golden.
Eggs
Bind the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the salmon during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer layer when fried.
Butter
Fats that brown with the flour to start the gravy's colour and flavour.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it browns in the butter.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the butter for the gravy. Flour must be cooked in the melted butter until it turns light brown before liquid is added. This toasts the starch and builds a nutty flavour, and adding the water too early leaves a raw, pasty taste and lumps.

“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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