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Boiled Salmon Au Court Bouillon

A salmon fillet boiled in a seasoned court bouillon of butter, carrot, onion, celery, vinegar, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, parsley, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Boiled Salmon Au Court Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the court bouillon

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter until it hisses.

  2. Add the minced carrot, chopped onion, and celery pieces.

  3. Pour in the vinegar, then add the black peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, parsley, and boiling water.

  4. Cover and cook for one hour.

  5. Strain the mixture and pour the liquid into a fish kettle.

Poach and serve

  1. Add the salmon wrapped in muslin and boil for 12 minutes per pound.

  2. Serve the salmon with Béchamel Sauce and garnish with nasturtium flowers, parsley, or cress.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the court bouillon a sharp, bright flavour.
Salmon
Is the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it poaches in the liquid.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aromatic depth to the cooking liquid.
Onion
Contributes savoury aroma and flavour to the cooking liquid.
Butter
Adds fat that carries aroma from the vegetables into the bouillon.

The step that matters

Boil the salmon for 12 minutes per pound. Boiling too long toughens and dries the proteins, making the flesh firm and crumbly, while too little time leaves the centre underdone. Timing by weight keeps the fish moist and evenly cooked.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, onion, celery, vinegar, parsley, salmon):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, onion, celery, vinegar, parsley, salmon. 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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