Name: Salmon Bisque
Ingredients: 2 cups minced salmon; 2 cups fine bread crumbs; ½ cup butter; 2 quarts boiling water; salt to taste; pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon minced parsley; 2 raw eggs, beaten

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine the minced salmon, bread crumbs, and butter.
Pour in the boiling water and stir well.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the minced parsley and beaten eggs, stirring until well combined.
Simmer for a few minutes until heated through.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon: Provides the main flavor and body of the bisque.
Bread crumbs: Thicken the liquid and give the bisque a soft, body-filled texture.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the bisque.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set slightly when heated.

Swap the parsley

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

Parsleythe original
Capersfits about as well
Nutmegfits about as well
Tarragonfits less well

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