Why it works: Salmon and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,485 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Salmon Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare a salmon paste as directed for croquettes and let it cool until stiff.
Mold the paste into the shape of mutton chops.
Dip each chop in egg and coat with breadcrumbs.
Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Fry the chops as you would croquettes or doughnuts.
Insert a piece of macaroni into the small end of each chop to resemble a bone.
Serve with sauce tartare or tomato sauce and garnish with sliced lemon.
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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Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,485 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,918 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,765 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + lemontop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,598 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, sauce):
- Avocadofits better
- Lemonthe original
- Pumpkinfits about as well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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