Why it works: Salmon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,481 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Fresh Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the salmon and cut it into slices about 1.5 inches thick.
Dry the salmon thoroughly with a clean cloth.
Rub the salmon with sweet oil or melted butter and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Broil
Preheat a gridiron over a clear fire at a distance.
Wipe the gridiron clean and rub it with sweet oil or lard.
Place the salmon on the gridiron and broil until done on one side, then gently turn and broil the other side.
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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,481 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
- Fresh salmon
- Forms the main body of the dish; its flesh cooks through and firms as it broils.
- Sweet oil or melted butter
- Coats the surface, adding moisture and helping the salmon brown and resist sticking.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the surface and helps draw out moisture for a better sear.
The step that matters
Place the salmon on the gridiron and broil until done on one side, then gently turn and broil the other side.. Salmon is delicate and can stick or break when turned. Turning gently after the first side sets and releases keeps the slices intact, and the gridiron must be clean and oiled so the fish does not stick.
“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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