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Salmon, Smoked, Devilled

A savory appetizer of smoked salmon served on toasted bread with curry butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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, Smoked, Devilled

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the toast

  1. Trim the toast slices and cut each into three even pieces.

  2. Butter one side of each toast piece.

  3. Sprinkle the buttered side with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne.

Top the toast

  1. Cover with thin slices of smoked salmon.

  2. Add a layer of curry butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Smoked salmon
Provides the main savoury flavour and a tender, silky texture when warmed.
Toast
Gives a crisp, sturdy base that holds the toppings without going soggy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and carries the curry flavour across the toast.
Curry powder
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the butter layer.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens and balances the rich salmon and butter.

The step that matters

Baking in the hot oven for a few minutes. Brief high heat warms the toppings and crisps the toast while keeping the salmon moist. Leaving it in too long dries the smoked salmon and can scorch the butter and toast edges.

“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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