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Salmon, Devilled

Thinly sliced kippered salmon coated with mustard, anchovy essence, and cayenne, served on fried toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon, Devilled

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix the mustard, Lucca oil, essence of anchovy, and cayenne in a bowl.

  2. Rub the mixture into the thin slices of kippered salmon.

Assemble and bake

  1. Lay the salmon on fried toast seasoned with pepper or cayenne.

  2. Place the toast in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately, or substitute with thin biscuits soaked in Lucca oil and toasted until crisp.

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Anchovy + salmontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Mustard + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mustard + salmontop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together839 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

Kippered salmon
Provides the main savoury flavour and the body of the dish.
Mustard
Adds sharp pungency that cuts through the richness of the salmon and oil.
Lucca oil
Carries the seasonings and adds fat that moistens the salmon and toast.
Essence of anchovy
Adds deep salty, savoury umami flavour to the coating.

The step that matters

Baking the toast. A hot oven for only a few minutes is needed to warm the salmon and crisp the toast without drying the fish. Leaving it too long dries the salmon and makes the toast hard.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, salmon, pepper. 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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