Name: Salmon Pie
Ingredients: Salmon, cut into cutlets; Butter, for greasing; Cayenne pepper; Black pepper; Coarse sea salt; Bruised shrimps or lobster; Water; Salmon bones and head for gravy

Why it works: Butter and shrimp are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Salmon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Grease a pie dish with butter.
Layer the salmon cutlets in the dish.
Season with cayenne, black pepper, and salt.
Add bruised shrimps or lobster pieces.
Pour water into the dish until half full.
Make a fish gravy using the salmon bones and head.
Bake the pie until done, then pour the gravy into it before serving.

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.

Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + shrimptop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together819 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + shrimptop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,692 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).