Why it works: Salmon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,481 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Salmon, Broiled
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Cut the salmon into slices or divide it into cutlets, removing the bone if desired.
Pat the salmon dry with a clean cloth and coat each piece with salad oil or butter.
Broil
Preheat a clean gridiron over a clear fire, ensuring it's at a distance from the flames.
Once the bars are hot, wipe them and rub with lard or suet to prevent sticking.
Place the salmon on the gridiron and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Brown one side, then carefully turn to brown the other side.
Alternatively, cook the salmon in a tin or flat dish in the oven at 400°F (200°C) with a bit of butter or sweet oil.
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.
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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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, cooking through while its surface browns.
- Salad oil or butter
- Coats the salmon to add moisture and help it brown evenly.
- Lard or suet
- Greases the hot bars so the fish does not stick to the gridiron.
The step that matters
Turning the salmon. Fish is delicate and sticks or breaks when moved too early. Let the first side brown and release naturally before turning it carefully.
“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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