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Boiled Salmon

A salmon fillet boiled in salted water, served with melted butter, lemon juice, and parsley sprigs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Boiled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil salted water in a large pot.

  2. Add the salmon and cook until done, ensuring it retains its color.

  3. Serve with melted butter and lemon juice.

  4. Garnish with parsley sprigs.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  3. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main protein, which firms up and turns opaque as it cooks.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor across the mild fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and the fish's flavor.

The step that matters

Add the salmon and cook until done, ensuring it retains its color. Salmon overcooks quickly, and past the point of doneness the proteins tighten, squeezing out moisture and leaving the flesh dry and chalky. Pulling it as soon as it flakes keeps it moist.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, lemon. 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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