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To Broil Salmon

A salmon dish broiled with pepper, salt, butter or oil, parsley, scallions, garlic, and served with cream butter sauce and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Broil Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the salmon into slices.

  2. In a deep dish, layer salmon with salt, parsley, scallions, and bruised garlic.

  3. Baste with oil and marinate for 2-3 hours.

Cook

  1. Broil over a clear fire or wrap in paper with pepper, salt, and butter or oil.

  2. Baste carefully at a distance from the fire.

  3. Place on a gridiron, turning and basting with seasoning.

  4. Check doneness by cutting open the back.

Serve

  1. Remove the skin and serve with cream butter sauce and capers.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Is the main protein, cooked by direct heat until it flakes and turns opaque.
Butter or oil
Carries heat and adds richness, helping the fish stay moist while it cooks.
Garlic
Adds aroma to the marinade as it is bruised and sits with the fish.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter sauce.

The step that matters

Baste carefully at a distance from the fire. Fat and seasoning dripping onto a hot flame can flare up and scorch the surface, while fish held too close can char before the inside is cooked. Keeping distance lets heat penetrate gently.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, butter, parsley, garlic, cream, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, butter, parsley, garlic, cream, 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.

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