Skip to main content
Main

To Fry Salmon

Salmon slices seasoned, wrapped in paper, fried, served with melted butter and anchovy sauce, optionally with cucumber or caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Fry Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the salmon slices with coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper.

  2. Wrap the seasoned salmon slices in white paper.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the wrapped salmon until cooked through and pale brown.

  2. Serve the salmon in the paper with plain melted butter and anchovy sauce.

  3. Add sliced cucumber or caper sauce as an optional accompaniment.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Salmon + cucumbertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Pepper + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 to a firm, flaky texture.
Plain melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the salmon when served.
Anchovy sauce
Contributes a salty, savoury depth that complements the fish.

The step that matters

Fry the wrapped salmon until cooked through and pale brown. Frying at a steady heat cooks the thick slices through without drying the outside. Pulling them too early leaves the centre underdone, while overcooking toughens the proteins and dries the flesh.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, butter, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

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

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipesSmoked SalmonSmoked Salmon14 recipes