Skip to main content
Main

Salmon Steaks

Salmon steaks are pan‑fired or breaded and served with cucumber and Hollandaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Salmon and cucumber work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Salmon Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat a sauté pan over medium‑high heat.

  2. Grease parchment paper with oil or butter and place the salmon steaks inside.

Cook

  1. Grill or fry the salmon steaks in hot butter until cooked through.

  2. Alternatively, coat the salmon steaks in beaten egg and breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the coated salmon in hot fat until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with thinly sliced cucumber and Hollandaise sauce or another sauce of your choice.

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. Salmon + cucumbertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 steaks
Main protein; its flesh firms and turns opaque as it cooks through.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumbs to the fish so the coating holds during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried in hot fat.
Cucumber
Adds cool, crisp contrast to the rich, warm fish.
Hollandaise sauce
Adds richness and acidity that balances the cooked fish.

The step that matters

Fry the coated salmon in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the breadcrumb coating absorbs oil and turns greasy and pale instead of crisping. Frying too long can dry out the fish, so it should be cooked just through.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

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

More salmon steaks recipes

Broiled 4 See all 4 →

You might also like

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipesSmoked SalmonSmoked Salmon14 recipes