Why it works: Salmon and lobster work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
To Boil Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Fill a fish kettle with enough spring water to cover the salmon.
Bring the water to a boil and add a handful of coarse sea salt.
Wash the salmon well and place it in the boiling water.
Cook and serve
Boil gently for about 15 minutes per pound of fish, skimming off any scum that rises.
Serve with lobster, shrimp, or anchovy 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 + lobstertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together313 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks in the water.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the poaching water so the fish is lightly seasoned as it cooks.
The step that matters
Boil gently for about 15 minutes per pound of fish. A rolling boil breaks the fish apart and toughens the flesh, while gentle simmering cooks it evenly. Skimming removes scum that would otherwise cloud the cooking liquid and mar the surface.
“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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