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Pickled Salmon

A whole salmon is boiled, sliced, and preserved in vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pickled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Scale, clean, and wash the salmon thoroughly.

  2. Boil the salmon in a pot of water with onion, bay leaves, parsley, and salt.

  3. Once cooked, place the salmon in a colander to dry.

Pickle

  1. Cut the salmon into three or four pieces and place in a stone jar.

  2. Cover the salmon with vinegar and add red pepper, whole allspice, and bay leaves.

  3. Let it sit for about a week or ten days before using.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Is the main protein; cooking firms its flesh before it is pickled.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the fish and gives it a sharp, tangy flavour as it sits.
Whole allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses the pickling liquid and fish.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma to the boiling water and the pickle.

The step that matters

Let it sit for about a week or ten days before using. The fish needs time in the vinegar for the acid to penetrate the flesh and flavours to develop. Using it too early leaves the texture raw-tasting and the pickle underseasoned.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, parsley, vinegar, pepper, allspice. 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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