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Boiled Salmon

A boiled salmon served with potato balls, parsley, and optional fried crayfish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale and draw the salmon, then place it on the drainer of a fish kettle, belly side down.

  2. Fill the cavity with wet cheese cloth to help retain its shape.

  3. Carefully remove the cloth from the center to avoid breaking the fish.

  4. Tie the fish securely to the drainer with thread.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil the fish in salted water until cooked through.

  2. At serving time, drain the fish well and place it on a platter using a fish trowel.

  3. Garnish both sides with steamed potato balls.

  4. On one end of the dish, place a bunch of parsley leaves, and on the other end, add fried crayfish or more parsley leaves.

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

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

  2. Salmon + crayfishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together959 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + crayfishtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + crayfishtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked through by gentle boiling.
Potato balls
Provide a soft, starchy garnish that contrasts with the firm fish.

The step that matters

Carefully remove the cloth from the center. Cooked salmon flakes and breaks apart easily, so pulling the cloth out slowly and steadily keeps the fish's shape and prevents tearing the flesh.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, cheese, potato, crayfish):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, cheese, potato, crayfish. 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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