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Spring Soup

A soup made by boiling a whole salmon, garnished with horseradish and parsley, served with caper or anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Spring Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the salmon until cooked through.

  2. Garnish with horseradish and parsley.

  3. Serve with caper or anchovy sauce.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Horseradish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Horseradish + saucetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Parsley + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 through.
Caper sauce
Adds a sharp, briny acidity that contrasts with the rich fish.
Anchovy sauce
Adds a salty, savoury depth that complements the salmon.

The step that matters

Boil the salmon until cooked through. Salmon turns from translucent to opaque and flakes as its proteins set. Overcooking squeezes out moisture and leaves the flesh dry and tough, while undercooking leaves it raw in the centre.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, horseradish, sauce, anchovy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, horseradish, sauce, anchovy. 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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