Name: Salmon Steak
Ingredients: 1 salmon steak; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons melted butter; Butter or oil for sautéing

Why it works: Salmon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,481 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Salmon Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare a thin salmon steak for cooking.
Sprinkle the steak with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Pour melted butter over the steak and let it sit for a while.

Cook

Sauté the steak in butter or oil for about ten minutes, turning several times as it cooks.

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.

Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,446 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon steak: Forms the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it heats.
Melted butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Sauté the steak in butter or oil for about ten minutes. Salmon proteins firm and turn opaque as they heat, and the flesh dries out if it cooks too long. Turning the steak several times helps it heat evenly so the centre does not overcook while the outside browns.

“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.