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Salmon Steal?

Salmon seasoned with pickled gherkin, onion, anchovy, cayenne pepper, salt, and salad oil or melted butter, baked in paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 535 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Salmon Steal?

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Chop the gherkin, onion, and anchovy finely.

  2. Season the mixture with cayenne pepper and salt, then mix in the salad oil or melted butter.

  3. Rub the mixture into both sides of the salmon.

  4. Wrap the salmon in buttered paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve the salmon in the paper.

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. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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, cooked gently in its wrapping to stay moist.
Pickled gherkin
Adds sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the fish.
Pickled onion
Adds sharp, tangy flavour and a little moisture to the coating.
Anchovy
Adds savoury depth that enhances the flavour of the salmon.
Salad oil or melted butter
Carries the seasoning and adds fat, keeping the fish moist as it bakes.

The step that matters

Wrap the salmon in buttered paper. The paper holds in steam so the fish cooks gently and stays moist. If it is loosely sealed or unbuttered, the paper may stick or the surface may dry out during baking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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