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Saumon Au Bleu, or Court Bouillon

Salmon cooked in a wine-based court bouillon with aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Saumon Au Bleu, or Court Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Place the cleaned salmon in a fish kettle.

  2. Add wine, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, cloves, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, and butter.

  3. Heat the kettle over high heat until the wine ignites, then let it reduce by half.

Serve

  1. Remove the fish, drain it, and serve on an oblong dish covered with a napkin.

  2. Serve oil and vinegar in a sauceboat alongside.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main protein, which gently cooks in the seasoned wine and aromatics.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and its flavor concentrates as it reduces.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the cooking liquid.
Onion
Releases sweetness and savory depth into the cooking liquid as it softens.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Heat the kettle until the wine ignites. Igniting the wine burns off much of its alcohol and concentrates its flavor. Once lit, the flame can grow quickly, so the cook must watch it closely. Reducing by half then intensifies the broth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, wine, pepper, onion, garlic, thyme, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, wine, pepper, onion, garlic, thyme, parsley. 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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