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Salmon Cutlets

Salmon cutlets are breaded and fried slices of salmon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and bone from the salmon slices and trim them into cutlet shapes.

  2. Sprinkle the cutlets with salt, pepper, and flour.

Coat

  1. Dip the cutlets into the beaten eggs mixed with chopped parsley or onion.

  2. Coat the cutlets with breadcrumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the cutlets in boiling lard or sauté them in butter until golden brown.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the cutlet body and provides the main flesh and flavor.
Eggs
Bind the coating so the breadcrumbs adhere to the cutlets.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.
Flour
Dries the fish surface so the coating sticks and browns evenly.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. Frying over steady, sufficiently hot fat browns the breadcrumb crust quickly and cooks the salmon through before the coating darkens too much or absorbs excess grease. Fat that is too cool lets the coating soak up oil and turn soggy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, flour, egg, butter. 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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