Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Salmon and Capers

A broiled salmon served with a caper sauce made from boiled capers, fish stock, coulis, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Capers and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Broiled Salmon and Capers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut the salmon into slices and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Butter a tart pan or sauté pan and place the salmon inside.

Cook and finish

  1. Bake the salmon in the oven for about 10 minutes.

  2. Remove the salmon and place it on a grill to finish cooking.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Wash the capers and boil them in a little fish stock.

  2. Strain the stock, then mix in a little coulis and anchovy essence.

  3. Serve the sauce on a dish and place the grilled salmon on top.

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. Capers + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Salmon + fishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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 when heated.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps keep the salmon from sticking to the pan.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the fish.
Fish stock
Carries the flavour of the capers and forms the base of the sauce.
Anchovy essence
Adds a savoury, salty depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Removing the salmon before it dries out. Salmon is lean and continues to cook from residual heat after leaving the oven. Pulling it at the right moment keeps the flesh moist and tender, since overcooked fish turns dry and firm.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, butter, fish, anchovy):

  1. Capersthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, butter, fish, anchovy. 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.

You might also like

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipes