Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Baked Salmon
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the sauce
Melt the butter and flour in the gravy over medium heat.
Add the port wine, catsup, anchovies, and cayenne; stir until the anchovies dissolve.
Strain the sauce and pour it over the salmon slices in a dish.
Bake
Cover the dish with buttered paper and bake in the oven until cooked through.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Flour + port winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,167 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Salmon + port winetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together72 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 gently in the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour through the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy into a smooth, coating sauce.
- Port wine
- Adds depth and a touch of sweetness to the sauce.
- Anchovies
- Dissolve into the sauce, adding savoury depth without a clearly fishy taste.
The step that matters
Bake until cooked through. Salmon turns dry and firm when overcooked, so the cook should check for flakiness at the thickest part rather than rely on the time alone. The buttered paper cover traps moisture so the fish stays tender while the sauce heats through.
“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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