Skip to main content
Main

Collared Salmon

A smoked salmon prepared by salting, seasoning, and smoking with beech chips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Collared Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale the fish.

  2. Remove the fins.

  3. Cut off the head, leaving 2 inches of jowl.

  4. Cut off the tail, leaving 6 inches of fish.

  5. Open the fish at the back.

  6. Remove the bone.

  7. Wipe it clean.

Cure

  1. Sprinkle sifted loaf sugar over the fish.

  2. Let it sit for 6 hours.

  3. Replenish the sugar.

  4. Leave it until the next day.

  5. Cut the fish down the middle to create two sides.

Make the collar

  1. Pound the shrimps in a mortar with the anchovy and the spices to make a smooth paste.

  2. Cover the red surface of the fish with the paste, starting at the head.

  3. Roll it into a firm collar.

  4. Bind the collar tightly with broad tape.

  5. Sew it in strong calico or light canvas.

  6. Let it sit for 2-3 days.

Boil, dry and smoke

  1. Plunge it into boiling water with ½ ounce saltpetre and 1 pound salt for each half-gallon of water.

  2. Remove it.

  3. Set it on a sieve to cool.

  4. Dry it gradually over a slow fire.

  5. Smoke it with Beech chips for a week.

  6. Remove the cloth.

  7. Hang it in a dry air to solidify.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Fish + shrimptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the body of the collar, providing the flesh that is cured and smoked.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the fish and draws out moisture during the initial cure.
Shrimps
Pounded into the paste that is spread over the fish, adding flavour and body.
Anchovy
Adds savoury depth to the shrimp paste spread over the fish.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the fish and gives it its characteristic reddish colour.
Salt
Seasons and helps preserve the fish, both in the cure and in the boiling water.

The step that matters

Plunge it into boiling water with saltpetre and salt. Brief boiling with the correct salt and saltpetre ratio sets the cure in the flesh. Too little time or strength leaves the fish under-preserved, while overlong boiling can toughen it.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, sugar, shrimp, anchovy, 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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes