Name: Broiled Salmon and Capers
Ingredients: salmon; butter; coarse sea salt; black pepper; capers; stock; coulis; cayenne pepper

Why it works: Pepper and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,088 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Broiled Salmon and Capers

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the salmon into slices about ¼ inch thick.
Dip the slices in butter and season with salt and pepper on both sides.
Fold the slices in well-buttered parchment paper.
Prepare a clear fire and place the wrapped salmon on the grill.
Wash the capers and boil them in a little stock until reduced to a glaze.
Add a little coulis to the capers.
Once the salmon is cooked, remove it from the paper and place it on a dish.
Pour the caper sauce over the salmon and sprinkle with cayenne 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 + caperstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,088 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Salmon + caperstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together458 recipes

Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,637 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).