Skip to main content
Main

Salmon Collared

A preserved salmon rolled with oyster paste, egg yolks, anchovies, spices, and bread, then pickled in a brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Salmon Collared

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Wipe and scale the salmon.

  2. Cut off the head, tail, and fins.

  3. Split the salmon open at the back.

  4. Remove the insides and bones.

  5. Sprinkle the salmon with coarse sea salt and let it sit for 12 hours.

  6. Wash the salmon.

  7. Dry the salmon between two cloths.

Fill and roll

  1. Spread the oyster paste, egg yolks, anchovies, mace, white pepper, and grated bread evenly over the inner surface.

  2. Roll the salmon tightly from the tail end.

  3. Sew the salmon up in a cloth.

Cook and pickle

  1. Boil the salmon with plenty of sweet herbs and bay leaves until cooked through.

  2. Place the salmon in a deep jar.

  3. Boil the pickle again, adding sliced ginger, peppercorns, and allspice.

  4. Once cooled, pour the pickle over the fish, ensuring it is completely covered.

  5. Seal tightly.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Salmon + oystertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together672 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Mace + marjoramtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together767 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

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, and its flesh is what the pickle preserves and flavours.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the fish before it is filled and cooked.
Oysters
Adds savoury richness and moisture to the filling as a smooth paste.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy, binding texture to the filling.
Stale white bread
Absorbs liquid and helps bind the filling into a cohesive layer.
Anchovies
Contribute deep savoury flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the salmon until cooked through. The rolled fish is thick and wrapped in cloth, so heat must reach the centre for the fish to be fully cooked and safe before it is pickled. Keeping the water at a steady simmer helps the roll cook evenly without breaking apart.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, oyster, egg, mace, bread, marjoram, thyme):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, oyster, egg, mace, bread, marjoram, thyme. 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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesSalmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes