Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Salmon Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shape the salmon into an S by threading a pack thread through the tail, center, and head.
Place the salmon in a kettle with cold spring water and add plenty of coarse sea salt.
Cover the salmon with a sheet of paper.
Cook
Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat and let it simmer gently until cooked through.
Carefully remove the pack thread without breaking the salmon.
Serve
Serve the salmon on a fish plate with lobster sauce in a separate dish.
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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Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Salmon + lobstertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together313 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,765 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salmon
- Forms the main protein; gentle simmering keeps its flesh moist and tender.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the poaching water so the salmon is lightly flavoured throughout.
The step that matters
Simmer gently after boiling. Once the water reaches a boil, lowering the heat to a gentle simmer keeps the water from churning. A hard boil can toughen the proteins and break the fish apart, so the salmon stays moist and intact.
“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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