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Baked Salmon Trout

A baked salmon trout served with a cream and butter sauce, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Baked Salmon Trout

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Lay the cleaned fish in a baking pan with enough water to prevent scorching.

  3. If the fish is large, score the backbone with a sharp knife.

Bake and baste

  1. Bake slowly.

  2. Baste often with a mixture of butter and water.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream and hot water. Stir in melted butter and chopped parsley.

  2. Heat the cream mixture in a double boiler until warm.

  3. Add the gravy from the baking pan to the cream mixture. Boil briefly to thicken.

  4. Pour the sauce over the baked trout. Serve garnished with parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon trout
Is the main protein, cooked gently until moist and flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the basting liquid and the sauce.
Cream
Forms the body of the sauce, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma to the sauce and garnish.

The step that matters

Boil briefly to thicken. Cream thickens by reduction as water evaporates, but boiling too long can cause it to separate or become grainy. A brief boil at a controlled heat gives a smooth, lightly thickened sauce.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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