Name: Salmon Cutlets
Ingredients: Salmon slices, 1 inch thick; Pepper, to taste; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Butter, for greasing; White paper, for wrapping; Anchovy or caper sauce, for serving; Chopped herbs, optional; Lemon juice, optional

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmon Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Season the salmon slices with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Grease pieces of white paper with butter.
Wrap each slice in the paper, twisting the ends.

Cook and serve

Boil gently over a clear fire until cooked through.
Serve with anchovy or caper sauce.
For extra flavor, add chopped herbs and a little lemon juice.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together535 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,080 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

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 into flaky, tender pieces.
Butter: Greases the paper so the fish releases cleanly and gains a little richness.
Anchovy or caper sauce: Adds salty, sharp contrast that complements the rich salmon.