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Salmon Kedgeree

A salmon and rice dish flavored with butter, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Kedgeree

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Divide the salmon into large flakes.

  2. Heat the butter or fat in a saucepan.

  3. Add the rice and heat thoroughly.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then add the salmon.

  5. Stir gently over low heat for a few minutes.

  6. Serve on a hot dish.

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

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

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

  5. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main protein and flaky texture of the dish.
Well-boiled rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the buttery flavour.
Butter or good fat
Carries flavour and adds richness and moisture to the rice.

The step that matters

Stir gently over low heat. Gentle heat and light stirring keep the salmon in large flakes and prevent the rice from becoming mushy or dry, since rough handling breaks the fish apart and high heat can toughen it.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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