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Boiled Salmon

A salmon fillet boiled in salted water, then served with drawn butter, sliced boiled egg, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the salmon in salt water about ½ inch deep for 30 minutes.

  2. Scrape the skin thoroughly to improve flavor and color.

  3. Dip a thin cloth in boiling water, dredge it with flour, and wrap the fish.

Boil and serve

  1. Place the wrapped fish in a pot with cold water to cover.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, adding 2 teaspoons of salt 5 minutes before it's done.

  3. Transfer the fish to a platter, carefully remove the black skin, and pour drawn butter over it.

  4. Garnish with sliced boiled egg and sprigs of parsley.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, cooked gently in water until flaky.
Flour
Dusted on the cloth so the fish skin does not stick to it during boiling.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty coating that complements the mild fish.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes, adding salt 5 minutes before the end. Boiling too hard or too long can toughen and dry the fish, so keep the water at a gentle simmer and check doneness near the end.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, flour, butter, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, flour, butter, egg. 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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