Why it works: Salmon and egg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,174 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Remove the skin from the fish and cut it into serving pieces.
Season the fish with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Dip the fish pieces in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry the coated fish in hot fat until golden brown.
For codfish steak, shape the fillet into a round and secure the ends with skewers.
Dip the steak in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs, and cook in a sauté pan.
Serve the fried fish with Sauce Tartare in cups made from lettuce leaves.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
-
Salmon + eggtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,174 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Egg + breadtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together22,584 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + lettucetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Salmon + breadtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together941 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Pepper + breadtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, egg, bread, sauce):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, egg, bread, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
You might also like
Illustration
Illustration
Illustration
IllustrationThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.