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 ↓
Hunter's Salmi
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the game
Carve the cold roast game into neat joints and remove the skin.
Score the flesh lightly in two or three places.
Dredge a little coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper over the meat.
Warm and serve
Place the meat in a saucepan and squeeze the lemon juice over it.
Add the minced lemon rind, salad oil, and light wine.
Heat the meat in the saucepan until it is hot.
Serve with rusks or grilled crusts.
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 + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,066 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pheasant + peppertop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together462 recipes
Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
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Pheasant + lemontop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together163 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold roast game
- Provides the main meat, which is gently reheated in the sauce.
- Salad oil
- Carries fat and flavour through the meat and helps keep it moist while reheating.
- Light wine
- Adds liquid and acidity that moistens the meat and lifts the flavour as it heats.
- Lemon juice
- Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich game flavour.
The step that matters
Heating the meat until it is hot. Reheating cooked meat gently in a little liquid keeps it moist; overheating or boiling it hard toughens the proteins and dries the flesh.
“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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