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Boiled Salmon

A whole salmon is boiled in salted water and served with a butter‑flour sauce and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wrap the fish in thin muslin.

Cook and make the sauce

  1. Boil in salted water for about 15 minutes per pound.

  2. In a bowl, rub together the butter and flour to form a cream.

  3. Gradually add hot water while stirring constantly to avoid lumps; do not boil.

  4. Add the lemon juice just 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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 and is cooked gently in salted water.
Butter
Combines with flour to form a smooth base that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and hot water into a smooth cream-based sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce just before serving.

The step that matters

Adding hot water to the butter and flour. Pouring hot water in gradually while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, preventing lumps. Boiling the sauce can cause it to separate or thicken unevenly, so it should not be allowed to boil.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, flour. 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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