Why it works: Salmon and potato work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 952 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Salmon Baked Over Mashed Potatoes
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Peel and halve the potatoes, then place them in a baking dish.
Season the potatoes with salt.
Bake
Place the salmon on a wire stand above the potatoes.
Bake in the oven until the salmon is cooked through, 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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Salmon + potatotop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together952 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
- Provides the main protein, which firms and flakes as it cooks.
- Potatoes
- Starch that cooks soft, forming a moist base beneath the fish.
The step that matters
Bake until the salmon is just cooked through. Salmon proteins tighten and dry out once overcooked, so check that the thickest part flakes easily. Checking near the end of the time keeps the fish moist.
“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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