Why it works: Salmon and cucumber work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Salmon Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat a sauté pan over medium-high heat.
Coat the salmon steaks with egg, then breadcrumbs.
Fry the coated salmon steaks in hot butter until golden brown.
Serve with sliced cucumber and your choice of sauce.
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.
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Salmon + cucumbertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together513 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,485 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, egg, sauce):
- Chivefits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, egg, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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