Why it works: Salmon and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 535 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Salmon Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Season the salmon slices with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Butter a sheet of white paper.
Lay each slice on a separate piece of paper, twisting the ends.
Cook and serve
Broil gently over a clear fire.
Serve with anchovy sauce or caper sauce.
For higher seasoning, add chopped herbs and a little spice.
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 + anchovytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together535 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salmon
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into flaky, tender pieces.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps keep the paper-wrapped salmon moist as it cooks.
- Anchovy sauce or caper sauce
- Adds salty, sharp contrast that cuts through the richness of the salmon.
The step that matters
Broil gently over a clear fire. Gentle heat cooks the salmon through slowly, so the flesh stays moist and tender rather than drying out or scorching on the outside.
“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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