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Irish Salmon Pickle

A pickled salmon preserved in a vinegar and wine brine with horseradish, mace, bay leaves, pepper, allspice, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 654 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Irish Salmon Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Trim any leftover salmon or boil a fresh piece.

  2. Place the salmon in a deep dish and let it cool.

Make the pickle

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, water, white wine, sliced horseradish, mace, bay leaves, whole pepper, allspice, and salt.

  2. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes, then let it cool.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour the cooled pickle over the salmon, ensuring it is well covered.

  2. Seal the dish tightly; the salmon will keep for many days.

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. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Horseradish + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Vinegar + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main protein, which firms and flakes as it is cooked and then pickled.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
White wine
Adds acidity and a mild fruity depth to the pickling liquid.
Sliced horseradish
Contributes a pungent, sharp aroma and heat that infuse into the fish.
Bay leaves
Add a subtle herbal aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let the pickle cool before pouring it over the salmon. Pouring hot liquid over cooked fish would keep cooking it and soften its texture, so it should be fully cooled first. The salmon also needs to stay fully submerged so the acidic liquid covers it evenly and the dish stays sealed.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, white wine, horseradish, 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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