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Salmon Surprise

A baked salmon dish served on a border of mashed potatoes, topped with oyster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmon Surprise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potato border

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash with butter, coarse sea salt, pepper, and enough hot milk to moisten.

  2. Transfer the mashed potatoes to a pastry bag and pipe onto a stoneware platter to resemble a border of white roses.

Prepare the salmon and oysters

  1. Open the can of salmon and break the fish into large pieces.

  2. Heat the salmon in a steamer until warmed through, then place it in the center of the platter, seasoning with coarse sea salt, pepper, and a pinch of mace.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the oysters, their strained liquor, a dash of salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of butter.

  4. Cook over heat until the oyster edges curl, then pour over the salmon as it comes out of the oven.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the potato border with beaten egg yolk and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

  2. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

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

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Salmon + oystertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together672 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Mashed and piped, they form a soft structure that holds the dish's shape.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mashed potatoes and oysters a smooth, savoury flavour.
Hot milk
Moistens the mashed potatoes, making them soft and easy to pipe.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the potato border, it promotes even browning and a glossy finish in the oven.
Salmon
Provides the main protein and flavour at the centre of the platter.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour once their edges curl in the hot butter.

The step that matters

Brushing the potato border with egg yolk and baking until browned. Egg yolk browns through Maillard reactions and proteins setting in the heat. Too little baking leaves the border pale and underset, while overbaking dries the mashed potato.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, pepper, milk, salmon, egg, oyster):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, milk, salmon, egg, oyster. 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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