Why it works: Salmon and sugar work together. They rank in the top 35% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 931 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Dried Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Remove the entrails from the fish, saving the roe.
Rub the fish thoroughly with dry salt and hang it by the gills to drain overnight.
Cure
Mix together the powdered rock salt, brown sugar, and powdered saltpetre.
Rub this mixture well into the fish and lay it on a large dish for two days.
Drain the fish, rub it thoroughly with dry salt, and hang it by the gills to dry.
Once thoroughly dry, the salmon is ready for use.
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.
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Salmon + sugartop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together931 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rock salt
- Draws moisture out of the fish and firms its flesh during curing.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt in the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the colour of the fish and inhibits spoilage bacteria during curing.
The step that matters
Drying the fish fully after curing. Salmon must be thoroughly dry before use, because residual moisture allows bacterial growth and spoilage. Salt draws water out of the flesh, so the fish needs enough time hanging to dry completely.
“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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