Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Broil Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut fresh salmon into thick pieces.
Coat the pieces in flour.
Cook and serve
Broil the salmon until cooked through.
Serve on a dish with melted butter in a cup.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Salmon + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,776 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Fresh salmon
- Forms the main protein of the dish, cooking to a moist, flaky texture when heated through.
- Flour
- Coats the salmon, helping the surface brown and form a light crust under the broiler.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, served melted alongside the salmon for flavour and moisture.
The step that matters
Broil the salmon until cooked through. Salmon dries out quickly under high heat. Watching for it to turn opaque and flake easily, rather than relying only on time, helps keep it moist.
“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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