Name: Boiled Salmon and Peas
Ingredients: 1 whole salmon; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (for water); 2 cups peas; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (for peas); 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (for sauce)

Why it works: Salmon and peas work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 375 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Boiled Salmon and Peas

Ingredients

1 whole salmon
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (for water)
2 cups peas
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (for peas)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (for sauce)

Directions

Cook the salmon

Place the salmon in a pot with enough cold water to cover it and add ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt.
Bring the water to a gentle boil and cook the salmon for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on its size.

Cook the peas and serve

In a separate pot, boil the peas in water for 20 minutes, then add ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Serve the boiled salmon with plain drawn butter mixed with chopped 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.

Salmon + peastop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together375 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,885 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Is the main protein; gentle boiling cooks it through while keeping it moist and tender.
Peas: Provide the vegetable base, cooked until soft in salted water.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the peas and the sauce.
Parsley: Adds fresh, herbal aroma to the drawn butter sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a gentle boil. A hard, rolling boil agitates and toughens the salmon's proteins, forcing out moisture and leaving the flesh dry and firm. A gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps it tender.

Swap the parsley

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

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, peas, butter, sauce. 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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Salmon Salad155 recipes

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Green Peas Soup35 recipes

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Boiled Salmon and Peas