Skip to main content
Main

Salmon Roes, Caviare of

A preserved salmon roe caviar made with salt, nitre, saltpetre, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Salmon and roe work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 176 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Salmon Roes, Caviare of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the roes thoroughly in milk and water.

  2. Drain the roes until dry.

  3. Let the roes sit in salt for two days.

  4. After two days, lay the roes on a board before the fire for several hours.

  5. Crush the roes with a rolling pin.

Cure

  1. For every pound of roes, add 8 drops of spirit of nitre.

  2. Add enough pounded saltpetre to cover a sixpence.

  3. Press the mixture into jars.

Seal and keep warm

  1. Cover the jars with writing paper.

  2. Spread a little cold lard on top.

  3. Tie a bladder over the jar.

  4. Keep the jar in a warm place.

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. Salmon + roetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Salmon + spirittop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Roe + spirittop 46% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon roes
The main ingredient, whose eggs firm up and set during the salting and curing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the roes and firms their texture while preserving them.
Saltpetre
Acts as a preservative curing agent that helps keep the roes from spoiling.
Cold lard
Forms a fat layer on top that excludes air and helps protect the surface.

The step that matters

Let the roes sit in salt for two days. Salt draws water out of the eggs and firms their membranes. Too short a rest leaves the caviar soft and more prone to spoiling, while the drying step afterward removes surface moisture before curing.

“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