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Pickled Salmon

Pickled salmon brined, boiled, then cured in vinegar and spices.

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

Pickled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Clean the salmon and cut it into large pieces.

  2. Brine the salmon in salted water as if preparing to eat.

  3. Drain the salmon and wrap it in a dry cloth; refrigerate until the next day.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a kettle, combine the water used for boiling, vinegar, black pepper, grated nutmeg, and mace.

  2. Boil the mixture covered to prevent flavor loss.

  3. Allow the vinegar mixture to cool completely.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour the cooled vinegar over the salmon and add sweet oil on top.

  2. Cover the salmon tightly and store in a dry, cool 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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

Pepper and mace 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

Fresh salmon
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming firm and flaky as it is pickled.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fish and gives it a sharp, tangy flavor.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, warm spice that flavors the pickling liquid.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic flavor to the pickling liquid.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.
Sweet oil
Adds fat and richness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cooling the vinegar mixture completely before pouring it over the salmon. Pouring hot liquid over raw fish would partly cook it unevenly and soften its texture, so the mixture must be fully cool before it touches the salmon.

Swap the mace

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

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

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