Skip to main content
Main

Salmon, Potted

A salmon fillet seasoned with nutmeg, mace, pepper, and salt, baked in butter and served with clarified butter.

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Salmon, Potted

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the salmon

  1. Scale and dry the salmon.

  2. Slit the salmon down the back and remove the bone.

  3. Mix nutmeg, mace, pepper, and salt, then sprinkle over the fish.

  4. Let the seasoned salmon sit for 2-3 hours.

Bake and press

  1. Place the salmon in a large pot or pan and add ½ pound of butter.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

  3. Drain the salmon and cut it into pieces.

  4. Layer the pieces in pots with the skin facing up.

  5. Place a board over the pots and weigh it down to press the salmon until cold.

Finish

  1. Remove the board and weight, then pour clarified butter over the fish.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the dish; its fat keeps the cooked flesh moist and rich.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and forms a sealing layer that protects the fish from air.
Salt
Seasons the flesh and helps draw out moisture for a firmer texture.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic flavour that suits rich fish and butter.

The step that matters

Pressing the salmon until cold. Pressing while the fish cools packs the flakes together so the potted salmon sets dense and sliceable rather than loose. Removing the weight too early can leave it crumbly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, nutmeg, mace, pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, nutmeg, mace, pepper, butter. 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