Name: Salmon Cutlets
Ingredients: salmon fillets; coarse sea salt; black pepper; pork rashers or sweet olive oil

Why it works: Pepper and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Cutlets

Ingredients

salmon fillets
coarse sea salt
black pepper
pork rashers or sweet olive oil

Directions

Cut the salmon open and remove the bone.
Cut the fillets about three inches deep and lay them to dry in a clean, coarse cloth.
To fry, heat a pan and add pork rashers or sweet olive oil.
Fry the salmon cutlets until cooked through.
Serve hot, sprinkled with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

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.

Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Salmon + porktop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together625 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,446 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).