Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Shrimped Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the salmon into slices 1 ½ to 2 inches thick.
Soak the slices briefly in strong saltwater, then wash them well.
Cook and serve
Place the salmon in fast boiling salted water and cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
Dish the salmon on a napkin and serve hot with lobster sauce or melted butter.
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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Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Salmon + fishtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,078 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Salmon + lobstertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together313 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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; its flesh firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the fish during the brief saltwater soak and the salted cooking water.
- Plain melted butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and softens the lean salmon.
The step that matters
Place the salmon in fast boiling salted water and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Salmon is delicate, and water that is not at a full boil cools when the fish goes in, so the cooking becomes uneven and slow. Keeping the water boiling and timing the cook carefully helps the flesh set through without drying out or turning mushy.
“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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