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 ↓
To Bake Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the sauce
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the flour.
Add the gravy, port wine, ketchup, anchovies, and cayenne pepper.
Stir until the anchovies dissolve, then strain the sauce.
Bake and serve
Place the salmon slices in a dish and pour the sauce over them.
Cover the dish with a sheet of buttered paper.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes.
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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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Port wine + ketchuptop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together425 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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 and becomes flaky as it cooks through.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and carries flavour from the saucepan into the gravy base.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the butter and gravy into a smooth, coating sauce.
- Gravy
- Provides the main liquid and savoury body of the sauce.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.
- Anchovies
- Dissolve into the sauce to add salty, savoury depth.
The step that matters
Stir until the anchovies dissolve, then strain the sauce. Anchovies must fully break down into the hot sauce; undissolved pieces stay salty and gritty. Straining removes any remaining fragments so the sauce stays smooth and evenly seasoned.
“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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