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Salmon Cutlets Aux Concombres

Salmon cutlets served with a cucumber accompaniment and a stock-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Salmon Cutlets Aux Concombres

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the salmon

  1. Remove the bones and skin from the salmon slice.

  2. Cut the salmon into ½ inch thick slices.

  3. Flatten each slice with a rolling pin dipped in water.

  4. Cut uniform‑shaped cutlets from the flattened slices.

  5. Place the cutlets flat on a well‑buttered baking tin and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  6. Cover with buttered white paper and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for 10 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine salmon trimmings, chopped carrot, onion, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, cloves, whole pepper, and stock; boil gently until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the mixture into a basin and remove any fat.

  3. Melt butter in a pan.

  4. Add flour and stir until well coloured.

  5. Add the strained liquid and stir until the sauce boils.

Prepare the cucumber

  1. Cut the cucumber into 1‑inch rounds.

  2. Quarter each round.

  3. Remove seeds and rind.

  4. Trim to uniform shape.

  5. Boil the cucumber pieces in salted water until tender.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the cutlets and carries the flavour of the dish.
Stock
Provides the liquid base that becomes the sauce once reduced and thickened.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked with melted butter into a roux.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and adds flavour, and keeps the cutlets from sticking.
Cucumber
Adds a mild, fresh contrast to the rich salmon and sauce.

The step that matters

Add the strained liquid and stir until the sauce boils. Flour must be cooked with the butter until well coloured so it thickens smoothly. Adding liquid and bringing it to a boil lets the starch swell and thicken the sauce evenly, without lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, butter, carrot, thyme, parsley, clove. 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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