Name: Salmon a L’ecossaise
Ingredients: 1 whole salmon or trout, freshly caught; coarse sea salt; ½ pound fresh butter; 1 tablespoon chopped and blanched parsley; 1 pinch grated nutmeg; 1 pinch white pepper; juice of 1 lemon

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 a L’ecossaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Remove the gills and gut the fish, then wash it thoroughly.
Make deep incisions on both sides of the fish with a sharp knife.
Soak the fish in a large vessel of clean, cold spring water for about 2 hours.

Cook and serve

Bring a fish kettle of water to a boil and add a handful of coarse sea salt.
Carefully place the crimped fish in the boiling water and cook until done, which will take less time than plain fish.
Remove the fish from the water immediately to preserve its flavor and firmness.
For the sauce, melt the butter in a clean saucepan, then add parsley, nutmeg, white pepper, salt, and lemon juice.
Serve the salmon with the sauce on the side.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,375 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,451 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon or trout: Forms the main body of the dish; its firm flesh holds together during poaching.
Butter: Melted into the sauce, it adds richness and a smooth, silky texture.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the sauce.
Parsley: Adds fresh, herbal aroma and colour to the butter sauce.

The step that matters

Remove the fish from the water immediately. Fish protein sets and toughens with continued heat, so leaving it in the simmering water past doneness dries and firms the flesh. Lifting it out promptly keeps it moist and tender.

Swap the white pepper

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

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Dillfits better
White pepperthe original

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

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Salmon Salad155 recipes

Salmon Croquettes129 recipes

Canned Salmon14 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Salmon a L’ecossaise