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Ragoflt of Salmon

A salmon ragout cooked with vegetables, simmered in wine and vinegar, served with fried shrimp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ragoflt of Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Split the head and tail of the salmon lengthwise.

  2. Place them in a deep dish with the chopped vegetables.

  3. Season with salt, cayenne, and mace.

Cook

  1. Pour in the boiling water, tarragon vinegar, and white wine.

  2. Simmer in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Fry the shrimps in butter until cooked.

  2. Serve the salmon topped with the fried shrimps.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Celery + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 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 (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the flavour of the poaching liquid.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the liquid and balances the richness of the fish.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, helping flavour the fish.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, and browns the shrimps when fried.
Shrimps
Provide a sweet, delicate seafood flavour as a topping.

The step that matters

Simmer in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour. Gentle, moderate heat cooks the salmon through slowly, keeping the flesh moist and tender rather than dry and firm.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (capsicum, parsley, pepper, carrot, celery, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against capsicum, parsley, pepper, carrot, celery, tarragon, vinegar. 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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