Why it works: Salmon and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,918 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Boiled Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scale the salmon and wash it thoroughly, removing any blood.
Cook
Boil the salt in a large pot of water for 1-2 minutes, skimming off any scum.
Add the salmon to the pot and boil gently until fully cooked.
Remove the salmon from the pot and let it drain on a fish plate.
Serve
Serve the salmon on a hot folded napkin and garnish with lemon slices.
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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Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,918 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salmon
- Is the main protein, cooked gently in salted water until it turns firm and flaky.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the fish is flavoured as it poaches.
The step that matters
Boil gently after adding the salmon. A rolling boil toughens and breaks up the delicate muscle fibres of fish, making it dry and ragged. A gentle simmer cooks it evenly while keeping it moist and tender.
“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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