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Boiled Salmon with Stuffed Cucumbers

A boiled salmon served with stuffed cucumbers, lettuce, and tartare sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Salmon with Stuffed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the salmon

  1. Cover the salmon with tepid water, adding a pinch of coarse sea salt.

  2. Heat the water to boiling, then reduce to a simmer until the flesh separates from the bone.

  3. Drain the salmon and arrange it on a plate.

Plate and serve

  1. Surround the salmon with stuffed cucumbers and fill the open space with lettuce.

  2. Serve with sauce a la tartare.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Salmon + cucumbertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Lettuce + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cucumber + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main protein; gentle simmering cooks it through while keeping the flesh moist and tender.
Sauce a la tartare
Adds richness and acidity to contrast with the mild, poached fish.

The step that matters

Simmer the salmon gently after boiling. Once the water reaches a boil, lowering it to a simmer keeps the fish from toughening. Vigorous boiling forces proteins to tighten and dries the flesh, while gentle heat cooks it evenly until it flakes away from the bone.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucethe original
  4. Radishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, cucumber, sauce. 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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