Why it works: Salmon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,481 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Broiling Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Clean the fish and cut it into slices about 1 inch thick.
Dry the slices with a clean cloth and rub them with thick melted butter.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the fish.
Heat a gridiron over a clear fire slowly, then wipe it clean.
Rub the bars of the gridiron with a little lard or clarified dripping.
Place the fish slices on the gridiron and broil until done on one side, then carefully turn to broil the other side.
Serve salmon with lobster or anchovy sauce, or plain melted butter; serve cod with oyster or shrimp sauce, or plain melted butter.
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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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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