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Crimped Salmon

Boiled salmon served with lobster sauce, melted butter, or caper fish-sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Crimped Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the salmon into 1.5 to 2-inch thick slices.

  2. Place the slices in a bowl of strong saltwater briefly, then wash them well.

Cook and serve

  1. Bring a pot of salted water to a fast boil and skim off any scum.

  2. Add the salmon slices to the boiling water and cook for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Serve the salmon hot on a napkin with lobster sauce and plain melted butter, or with caper fish-sauce.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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 + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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, cooking to a firm, flaky texture in the hot water.
Lobster sauce
Adds a rich, savoury flavour that complements the mild boiled fish.
Plain melted butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and moisture of the cooked fish.
Caper fish-sauce
Adds acidity and briny sharpness that cuts through the richness of the fish.

The step that matters

Add the salmon to a fast boil. The water must be at a hard boil when the slices go in so the heat returns quickly and the fish cooks evenly. Too long in the pot, or a gentle simmer, makes the flesh dry and tough as the proteins over-contract.

“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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