Why it works: Olive and salmon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,942 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Pry Salmon and Other Fish in Oil
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Heat the olive oil in a small deep frying pan over a clear fire until it stops bubbling.
Cook
Carefully add the salmon and fry gently until cooked through, about 30 minutes.
Lift the pan to prevent the fish from browning too much.
Finish and serve
Drain the fish well when done and let it cool completely before serving.
Garnish with light foliage.
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.
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Olive + salmontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,942 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Olive oil
- Conducts gentle heat and gives the salmon a fried surface and richer flavour.
- Salmon
- Is the main protein, cooking to a flaky texture as it fries gently.
The step that matters
Lift the pan to prevent the fish from browning too much. Keeping the fish gently fried rather than in direct, intense heat limits surface browning. Too much browning can make the exterior bitter and dry out the flesh beneath.
“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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