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Pickled Salmon

Pickled salmon is cured salmon preserved in vinegar with onions, sugar, and pickling spice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Pickled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Soak the salmon in fresh water for 12 hours.

  2. Cut the salmon into slices ¼ inch thick.

Pickle

  1. In a 9-quart jar, layer pickling spice, fish, onion slices, sugar, and repeat until all ingredients are used.

  2. Pour vinegar over the layers to cover them completely.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 3 days or more.

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. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Salmon + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Salmon + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Salmon + sugartop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together931 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main fish body, which firms and becomes flavorful as it cures in the brine.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickled sharp, tangy flavor.
Onions
Add sweet aroma and crisp texture that softens slightly as they pickle.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Cover the layers completely with vinegar. Fish left exposed above the liquid can spoil, because acid and submersion are what keep the pickling safe and even. Full coverage also lets the vinegar penetrate the whole stack.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, sugar, vinegar. 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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