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Salmon Scallops

Salmon scallops are pan‑fried salmon slices served with butter, stock, parsley, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Cut the salmon into small thin slices and remove all skin.

  2. Cut the slices round and flatten them with a knife dipped in cold water.

Cook the salmon

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Place the scallops side by side in the pan.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. When they are brown, turn them.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Heat the stock in a saucepan.

  2. Add the butter the fish was cooked in to the stock.

  3. Add the minced parsley and nutmeg to taste, and serve with the fish.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks to a firm, flaky texture.
Butter
Cooks the fish and adds richness and browning to its surface.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savory depth and moisture.

The step that matters

When they are brown, turn them.. Turning too early leaves the surface stuck to the pan and unbrowned. Wait until the underside browns and releases easily, so the fish keeps its shape and develops flavour.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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