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Freji Salmon

A salmon dish broiled with a sauce of anchovies, leek, capers, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and capers share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Freji Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut fresh salmon into slices and wipe them clean and dry.

  2. Melt butter in a pan.

  3. Add a little flour and coarse sea salt to the melted butter.

  4. Coat the salmon pieces in the butter mixture.

  5. Wash and bone the anchovies. Cut the anchovies into small pieces.

  6. Cut the leek into three or four long pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Set the leek in a saucepan with butter and a little flour.

  2. Add the anchovies, leek, capers, pepper, nutmeg, warm water, and vinegar to the saucepan.

  3. Shake the saucepan until it boils.

  4. Simmer the sauce until ready.

  5. Remove the leek from the sauce.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the salmon on a clean grill.

  2. Broil the salmon over a clear, slow fire.

  3. Turn the salmon to cook evenly until done.

  4. Pour the sauce into a dish.

  5. Place the broiled salmon on top.

  6. Garnish with lemons cut into quarters.

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. Leek + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Leek + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Its flesh cooks into flakes, and the butter coating keeps it moist during broiling.
Butter
Carries flavor and fat, coats the salmon, and enriches the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter coating and the sauce so they cling and hold together.
Anchovies
Adds deep savory saltiness that melts into the sauce.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that balances the rich butter.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and cuts its richness.

The step that matters

Broil the salmon over a clear, slow fire. Gentle, even heat cooks the salmon through without drying or burning its outside. Flour and butter coating help hold moisture, and turning ensures even cooking.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, flour, leek, capers, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, flour, leek, capers, pepper, vinegar. 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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