the library

Grilled salmon

Meat, fish & cheese· seafood

What it is

Grilled salmon is salmon cooked directly over an open flame or hot grate.

What it tastes like

On the nose: saline. Among its measured molecules: pristane, 3-pentanone, dimethyl sulfide, trimethylamine, 2,3-pentanedione.

Every one of its 10 compounds carries a paper the library can cite.

• acetaldehydearomaaldehydereads as pungent, fruity (PubChem)Measured in 18 of 341 ingredients.cite

  7900.42 +/- 545.09 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 7 'Acetaldehyde', 'SO' column)
• propanalaromaaldehydereads as similar to acetaldehyde (PubChem)Measured in 11 of 341 ingredients.cite

  20,433.20 +/- 2682.42 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon -- the largest identified peak in the table — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 17 'Propanal', 'SO' column)
• 1-propanolaromaalcoholreads as burning taste (PubChem)Measured in 23 of 341 ingredients.cite

  424.23 +/- 41.09 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 109 '1-Propanol', 'SO' column)
• dimethyl sulfidearomasulfur compoundreads as flavor (PubChem)Measured in 5 of 341 ingredients.cite

  32.25 +/- 6.42 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon, vs 1.95 +/- 0.01 ug/kg in grilled coho salmon (p < 0.05) -- a large species difference in the opposite direction from pristane — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 11 'Dimethyl sulfide', 'SO' column)
• trimethylaminearomanitrogen compoundreads as saline taste (PubChem)Measured in 6 of 341 ingredients.cite

  6835.34 +/- 192.34 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon, vs 1155.23 +/- 294.80 ug/kg in grilled coho salmon (p < 0.05) — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 15 'TMA', 'SO' column)
• 3-pentanonearomaketoneMeasured in 3 of 341 ingredients.cite

  33.47 +/- 4.05 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 72 '3-Pentanone', 'SO' column)
• heptyl alcoholaromaalcoholreads as fragrant (PubChem)Measured in 9 of 341 ingredients.cite

  78.29 +/- 14.90 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon, vs 22.52 +/- 2.58 ug/kg in grilled coho salmon (p < 0.05) — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 267 '1-Heptanol', 'SO' column)
• 2,3-pentanedionearomaketonereads as somewhat sweet similar to quinone buttery diacytl, fermented dairy and creamy, popcorn buttery (PubChem)Measured in 6 of 341 ingredients.cite

  5437.58 +/- 75.25 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 122 '2,3-Pentanedione', 'SO' column)
• pristanearomaterpenoidMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  92,840.44 +/- 2619.88 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon, vs 2206.21 +/- 613.18 ug/kg in grilled coho salmon (p < 0.05) -- a more than 40-fold species difference for a known fish-lipid isoprenoid (pristane) — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 300 '2,6,10,14-Tetramethylpentadecane', 'SO' column)
• 2,4-heptadienalaromaaldehydeMeasured in 12 of 341 ingredients.cite

  2873.71 +/- 975.98 ug/kg in grilled sockeye salmon — Mori et al. 2025, Metabolites (Table 3, row 277 'trans,trans-2,4-Heptadienal', 'SO' column)