Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Baked Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the salmon
Boil the salmon in a pan for 20 minutes, then remove the salmon and pour off the oil.
Once cooled, remove the skin and bones from the salmon and break it into pieces.
Make the sauce
In a pot, boil the milk with the chopped onion tied in a bag.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the butter until smooth.
Stir the flour mixture into the boiling milk and season with red pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.
Bake and serve
In a baking dish, layer the salmon and sauce, then sprinkle the top with bread or cracker crumbs.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the top is light brown.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lake salmon
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flaky protein that the sauce coats.
- Rich milk
- Forms the creamy base of the sauce, adding moisture and richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that binds the salmon together.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and cooks with the flour to help form a smooth roux.
- Onion
- Adds savory aroma to the milk as it steeps and boils.
- Bread or cracker crumbs
- Forms a topping that browns in the oven, adding texture and color.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour mixture into the boiling milk. Adding the flour-butter paste to hot milk while stirring constantly prevents lumps, because the starch must be dispersed before it thickens into a smooth sauce.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, milk, flour, butter, pepper, parsley, bread):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, milk, flour, butter, pepper, parsley, bread. 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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