Name: To Broil Salmon
Ingredients: small quantity of salmon; salad oil or butter; coarse sea salt; lard or suet; butter or sweet oil (for oven method); buttered paper (optional); lobster or shrimp sauce (optional)

Why it works: Salmon and lobster work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

To Broil Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cut the salmon into slices or remove the bone and divide into cutlets.
Dry the salmon thoroughly with a clean cloth.
Rub each piece with salad oil or butter.
Preheat a gridiron over a clear fire, then wipe the bars and rub with lard or suet to prevent sticking.
Place the salmon on the gridiron and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Brown one side, then carefully turn and brown the other side.
Alternatively, place the salmon in a flat dish in the oven at 400°F (200°C) with a bit of butter or sweet oil.
You can also cook the salmon in buttered paper on the gridiron.
Serve with lobster or shrimp sauce if desired.

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 + lobstertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together313 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + lobstertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

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