Skip to main content
Main

Fresh Salmon

Grilled salmon served with a sauce of anchovies, leek, capers, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar, and warm water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Leek and capers share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Fresh Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Wipe the salmon slices clean and dry.

  2. Melt butter in a pan, then mix in flour and coarse sea salt.

  3. Coat the salmon slices in the butter mixture.

Broil the salmon

  1. Place the salmon on a clean grill and broil over a slow fire.

  2. Turn the salmon to cook evenly until done.

Make the anchovy sauce

  1. Wash and bone the anchovies, then cut them into small pieces.

  2. Cut the leek into three or four long pieces.

  3. In a saucepan, melt some butter.

  4. Add flour, anchovies, leek, capers, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  5. Add warm water and vinegar.

  6. Bring to a boil and simmer until ready.

  7. Remove the leek from the sauce.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce into a dish.

  2. Place the broiled salmon on top.

  3. Garnish with quartered lemons.

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. Leek + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Leek + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main protein; broiling sets its flesh and browns the coated surface.
Butter
Carries the flour coating and adds richness and browning to the salmon and the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce and helps the butter coating cling to the salmon.
Anchovies
Melt into the sauce, adding a deep savory flavour that makes it taste richer.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the rich butter and anchovy.
Capers
Add briny, sharp notes that contrast with the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Turning the salmon during broiling. Over a slow fire the surface can dry out or burn before the centre cooks. Turning the slices gently helps heat cook evenly, keeping the flesh moist and flaky while the coating browns.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, flour, leek, capers, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, flour, leek, capers, pepper, vinegar. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesSalmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesLeek SoupLeek Soup31 recipes