Skip to main content
Main

Spiced Salmon

Pickled salmon flavored with cloves, mace or nutmeg, pepper, allspice, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Boil the salmon and let it cool after wiping it dry.

Make the pickling liquor

  1. Combine the water from boiling the salmon and vinegar in equal parts to cover the fish.

  2. Add cloves, mace or nutmeg, whole pepper, and allspice to the mixture.

  3. Heat the mixture until boiling, skim it clear, and add the butter.

  4. Pour the hot mixture over the salmon and set it in a cool place.

Store

  1. Once cold, it is ready to use and can be stored covered in a cool place for a long time.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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, which the pickling liquor flavours and preserves.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquor.
Whole pepper
Adds gentle pungency and aroma to the pickling liquor.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquor.

The step that matters

Skim the pickling liquor before adding the fish. Heating the liquid to a boil and skimming it clear removes foam and impurities, so the brine stays clean and clear-flavoured and keeps better in storage.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, clove, pepper, allspice, butter, egg. 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

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipesSmoked SalmonSmoked Salmon14 recipes