Name: Pickled Salmon
Ingredients: fresh salmon; coarse sea salt; whole pepper; allspice; vinegar; bay leaves (optional); fennel (optional); tarragon (optional)

Why it works: Fennel and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 134 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Pickled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the fresh salmon into convenient pieces, leaving the scales on.
Make a strong brine and boil the salmon in enough brine to cover it, adding whole pepper and allspice.
Do not over-boil the fish; once done, drain it on a slope to remove excess liquid.
Once cold, pack the fish tightly in small shallow casks (kitts) and pour over some brine and good vinegar.
Let it stand for a day, then strike the sides of the kitt with a mallet to pack the fish tightly.
Seal the kitts and do not open until needed; the fish will keep for about two weeks.

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.

Fennel + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Allspice + tarragontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together127 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + fenneltop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together46 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the fennel

The recipe marks fennel as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, pepper, allspice, vinegar, tarragon):

Dillfits better
Thymefits about as well
Marjoramfits about as well
Fennelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, allspice, vinegar, tarragon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.