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Salmon Steaks

Salmon steaks grilled and served with anchovy, prawn, or lobster sauce and fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salmon Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the salmon and remove the bone carefully without damaging the flesh.

  2. Cut the salmon into fillets or steaks about 1 inch thick.

  3. Dry the fillets lightly with a cloth and dredge them with flour without pressing.

  4. Prepare a clean grill and rub the grill with chalk to prevent sticking.

Grill and serve

  1. Broil the salmon over bright coals, turning with steak tongs until cooked through.

  2. Serve hot, wrapped in a heated napkin, with anchovy, prawn, or lobster sauce.

Alternative method

  1. For an alternative method, butter pieces of white paper and wrap each salmon slice securely.

  2. Broil the wrapped salmon over a moderate fire for about 12 minutes.

  3. Remove the paper and serve hot, garnished with fried parsley, with prawn or lobster sauce.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Anchovy + lobstertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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 main flesh of the dish, cooking to a flaky texture when heated through.
Flour
Forms a light coating that helps the surface brown and keeps the fish moist.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the wrapped salmon stay moist and flavorful.

The step that matters

Broiling until cooked through. Salmon dries out quickly over direct heat because its lean flesh loses moisture once overcooked. Turning it carefully and checking for doneness helps keep it moist and tender while it cooks through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, flour, butter, anchovy, sauce, lobster):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, flour, butter, anchovy, sauce, lobster. 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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