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Boiled Salmon

A whole salmon is boiled in salted water with vinegar, then served with egg sauce, capers, and garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and parsley 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 ↓

Boiled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sew the fish in a piece of thin muslin or mosquito netting, fitting it well.

Boil

  1. Boil in salted water with 2 tablespoons of vinegar added.

  2. Boil for 12 minutes per pound.

Serve

  1. Carefully remove the cloth and place the fish on a hot platter.

  2. Pour a few spoonfuls of egg sauce mixed with 1 tablespoon of capers over the fish.

  3. Serve the remaining sauce in a gravy boat.

  4. Garnish with nasturtiums, parsley, or cresses.

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. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Salmon + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  4. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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, cooked gently in simmering liquid until just flaky.
Vinegar
Adds a light acidity to the poaching water, brightening the flavour of the fish.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny bite to the egg sauce that contrasts with the rich fish.

The step that matters

Boil for 12 minutes per pound. Overcooking makes salmon dry and crumbly because proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture. Timing by weight keeps the flesh moist and just set, so check the thickest part for flakiness.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, vinegar, egg, sauce, capers):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, egg, sauce, 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.

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