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Baked Salmon with Cream Sauce

A baked salmon fillet topped with a creamy cornflour‑thickened sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Baked Salmon with Cream Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and bake the fish

  1. Butter a sheet of parchment paper on both sides and wrap the fish in it, pinning the ends securely.

  2. Place the wrapped fish in a baking pan and pour 6 to 7 tablespoons of melted butter over it.

  3. Cover with another pan and steam in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting occasionally.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, heat 1 cup of cream in a double boiler, dissolving a small piece of baking soda.

  2. Thicken the cream with the cornflour, then add 1 tablespoon of butter, pepper, salt, and minced parsley.

Serve

  1. When the fish is done, unwrap it and pour half of the sauce over it, serving the rest in a separate dish.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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 cooks gently in butter and steam.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the fish and carries flavour into the sauce.
Cream
Forms the base of the sauce, giving it body and a rich texture.
Cornflour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce as it heats.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream with cornflour. Cornflour starch granules only swell and thicken the cream when it is hot. Adding it to unevenly heated cream or stirring poorly causes lumps and a thin or grainy sauce.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, cream, pepper. 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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