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Salmon Patties

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Patties

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove skin and bones from the salmon and place in a bowl.

  2. Add chopped parsley, black pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine lemon juice, white wine, tarragon vinegar, and French mustard.

  4. Blend this mixture with the salmon until well combined and moist enough to drop from a spoon.

  5. Rub the bottom of a saucepan with a slice of onion and add a little butter.

  6. Heat the mixture in the saucepan until hot and well flavored.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, parsley, pepper, lemon, white wine, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, parsley, pepper, lemon, white wine, tarragon, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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