Name: To Broil Salmon
Ingredients: Salmon slices, 1 inch thick; Pepper, to taste; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Sweet oil or butter, for dipping; Writing paper; Anchovy sauce, for serving

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 Broil Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Season the salmon slices with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Dip the slices in sweet oil or rub them with butter.
Wrap the salmon in pieces of writing paper.

Cook and serve

Broil the wrapped salmon over a slow fire for 6 to 8 minutes.
Serve the salmon in the paper with anchovy sauce.

Dried salmon

If using dried salmon, soak it for 2 to 3 hours before grilling.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together535 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

Butter and sauce 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 and cooks to a flaky texture.
Sweet oil or butter: Adds fat that carries heat and keeps the surface of the salmon moist.
Anchovy sauce: Adds a salty, savory note that contrasts with the mild fish.

“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.