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Fine Dutch Salmon

A preserved salmon seasoned with salt, saltpetre, chillies, garlic, and bay leaves, then cured in a salt bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,760 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Fine Dutch Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Prepare the fish by removing the backbone.

  2. Mix the coarse sea salt, saltpetre, bruised chillies, and minced garlic well.

  3. Rub the mixture all over the skin side of the fish using a large handful.

Cure

  1. Lay the fish flat in a tub on a layer of rock salt.

  2. Strew bay leaves on top.

  3. Cover with the seasoning mixture.

  4. Place boards on the fish.

  5. Weigh them down.

  6. Remove the weights daily to apply more seasoning.

  7. Add fresh bay leaves on the third morning.

Finish

  1. Take the salmon out of the tub.

  2. Stretch it open at the back with wooden splints.

  3. Rinse quickly in saltwater.

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. Salmon + garlictop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Is the main body of the dish, cured whole and opened flat.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the flesh and seasons it during the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the colour of the cured fish and adds to the cure.
Bruised chillies
Add heat and aroma to the seasoning mixture.
Minced garlic
Adds aroma and savour to the seasoning mixture.

The step that matters

Removing the weights daily to reapply seasoning. Salt draws water out of the flesh and the cure must stay in contact with the fish to season it evenly. Lifting the weights to reapply the mixture keeps the surface covered and the cure consistent through the tub.

“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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