Why it works: Parsley and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Heat the cream in a saucepan until very hot, but do not let it boil.
Season the cream with salt to taste.
If desired, add shrimp or anchovy essence and chopped parsley.
For baked salmon, strain the liquor from the can and stir it into the cream.
Serve
Serve the sauce with fish, adding chopped capers for codfish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,550 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Salmon + caperstop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together458 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
-
Shrimp + salmontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together819 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Cream + salmontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Shrimp + caperstop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together179 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Heavy cream
- Forms the body of the sauce and gives it a rich, smooth texture.
The step that matters
Heat the cream without boiling. Cream that boils can separate or break and become grainy, so it should be heated only until very hot and kept just below a simmer.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, shrimp, salmon, capers):
- Garlicfits better
- Dillfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, shrimp, salmon, capers. 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 cream sauce recipes
You might also like
Salmon Salad155 recipes
Salmon Croquettes129 recipes
Canned Salmon14 recipes
Smoked Salmon14 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.