Name: To Broil Salmon
Ingredients: Salmon; pepper; coarse sea salt; butter or oil; parsley leaves; scallions; 1 clove garlic; cream butter sauce; capers

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 ↓

To Broil Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the salmon into slices.
Broil over a clear fire or wrap in paper with pepper, salt, and butter or oil.
Baste carefully at a distance from the fire.
In a deep dish, layer salmon with salt, parsley, scallions, and bruised garlic.
Baste with oil and marinate for 2-3 hours.
Place on a grill, turning and basting with seasoning.
Check for doneness by cutting open the back.
Remove the skin and serve with cream butter sauce and capers.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,768 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the clove

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

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Thymefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, butter, parsley, garlic, cream, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.