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To Pot Salmon

A slow-baked salmon cut into cutlets, seasoned and covered with clarified butter, baked at 300°F for about three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pot Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Split the scaled salmon into cutlets and wipe them with a clean, dry cloth without washing.

  2. Season the cutlets with cayenne, black pepper, allspice, and a little coarse sea salt.

  3. Layer the cutlets in a baking dish, placing bay leaves between each layer.

  4. Pour enough clarified butter over the fish to cover it completely.

Bake and pot

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about three hours.

  2. Once done, drain off the oil and gravy that exudes from the fish.

  3. Press the fish tightly into pots.

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 + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Salmon + fishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + fishtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 into tender, flaky pieces during the slow bake.
Clarified butter
Covers the fish so it cooks gently in fat, adding richness and moisture.
Bay leaves
Layered between the cutlets to add a subtle aromatic flavour to the fish.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven. A low, steady heat cooks the fish gently over a long time, keeping it moist and tender rather than dry and tough. Fish cooked too hot toughens quickly.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

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