Name: Salmon Au Gratin
Ingredients: 1 lb cold cooked salmon; fish sauce or white sauce; brown breadcrumbs; coarse sea salt; black pepper; butter

Why it works: Salmon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,481 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Salmon Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Separate the salmon into large flakes and place them in a fireproof baking dish.
Sprinkle the salmon with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Assemble and bake

Barely cover the salmon with fish sauce or white sauce.
Add a thin layer of brown breadcrumbs on top.
Dot with small pieces of butter.
Bake for a few minutes until heated through.
Serve directly from the dish.

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.

Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + fish saucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together119 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Fish sauce + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together141 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,446 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold cooked salmon: Forms the main body of the dish and provides its flavor.
Fish sauce or white sauce: Adds moisture so the salmon stays tender while it heats.
Brown breadcrumbs: Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the breadcrumbs brown.

“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.