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To Boil Salmon

A whole salmon is boiled in salted water and served with sauce and garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Boil Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Clean the salmon carefully.

  2. In a pot, bring water to a boil and add the salt.

  3. For a double boil, boil for 30 minutes after the water starts boiling; if split, boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Ensure the split salmon is placed in hot water.

Serve

  1. Serve with lobster or shrimp sauce, garnished with parsley and lemon.

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. Salmon + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together890 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Salmon + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Is the main protein that gently cooks through in simmering water.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cooking water so the salmon takes on some flavor as it poaches.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a steady boil when the salmon goes in. Placing the fish in hot water and timing it from the boil gives even, controlled cooking. Letting the water drop too far or cooking too long can dry out the flesh and make it fall apart.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, lobster, 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.

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