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Pickled Salmon

Pickled salmon is preserved by soaking in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bones from the cooked salmon and place it in a deep dish.

  2. If the fish was steamed, boil the bones for a few minutes and use that water with the vinegar.

Pickle

  1. Boil the vinegar, pepper, allspice, salt, and bay leaves for 10 minutes.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the salmon, cover, and let it sit for 12 hours before serving.

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 + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + fishtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + fishtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that firms and preserves the salmon as it pickles.
Salmon (in the method)
The main protein, which firms and absorbs flavour as it soaks in the pickling liquid.
Whole pepper
Adds warm, sharp aroma to the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Bay leaves
Adds herbal aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot mixture over the salmon. The liquid must be boiled so the spices release their flavour and the vinegar is hot enough to begin penetrating the fish. Cooling it first would weaken the infusion and slow the pickling.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, fish):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, fish. 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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