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Salmon Cutlets with Potatoes

Salmon cutlets served with boiled potatoes, parsley, lemon juice, and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Salmon Cutlets with Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place salmon cutlets in a pie dish and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Brush cutlets with melted butter and let them sit until ready.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the cutlets for about 10 minutes.

  2. Transfer cutlets to a large hot platter.

  3. Boil new potatoes, cut them into quarters lengthwise, and arrange them around the cutlets.

  4. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the dish.

  5. Melt butter in an omelette pan and pour it hot over the cutlets.

  6. Squeeze lemon juice over the dish and garnish with parsley tufts among the potatoes.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon cutlets
Provides the main protein, which firms and flakes as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the fish and potatoes.
New potatoes
Adds starchy body and a soft, tender bite alongside the fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and fish.

The step that matters

Boil the cutlets for about 10 minutes. Fish proteins firm up and then dry out if cooked too long. Stopping when the flesh just turns opaque and flakes keeps the cutlets moist and tender.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, butter, parsley, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, butter, parsley, lemon. 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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