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Salmon, Boiled

A whole salmon is boiled in salted water, then served with lemon, parsley, lobster or shrimp sauce, and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Salmon, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scale and clean the salmon, ensuring no blood remains inside.

Cook

  1. Place the salmon in a large pot and cover it with cold water, adding the salt.

  2. Bring the water to a boil, skimming off any scum that forms.

  3. Reduce heat and let the salmon simmer gently until the meat separates easily from the bone.

  4. Drain the salmon and keep it warm with cloths if not serving immediately.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot napkin, garnished with cut lemon and parsley, alongside lobster or shrimp sauce and melted butter.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Salmon + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 dish; simmering gently cooks the flesh until it flakes from the bone.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cooking water so the fish is flavoured as it poaches.
Lobster or shrimp sauce
Adds a rich, savoury sauce that complements the mild, delicate flesh of the fish.
Plain melted butter
Adds fat and richness that balances the lean, mild poached fish.

The step that matters

Simmer gently instead of boiling. A rolling boil toughens and breaks up the delicate protein of the fish, while gentle simmering cooks it evenly so it stays moist and separates cleanly from the bone.

“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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