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Salad

Dried Salmon

A whole salmon is cured and dried with salt, sugar, and saltpetre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

  1. Remove the entrails from the salmon and save the roe.

  2. Rub the fish thoroughly with dry salt.

  3. Hang it by the gills to drain overnight.

Cure

  1. Mix together the powdered rock salt, brown sugar, and powdered saltpetre. Rub this mixture well into the fish.

  2. Lay it on a large dish for two days.

  3. Drain the fish.

  4. Rub it thoroughly with dry salt.

Dry

  1. Hang it by the gills to dry.

  2. Once thoroughly dry, the salmon is ready for use.

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 + sugartop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Powdered saltpetre
Acts as a curing agent that preserves the fish and helps it keep its colour during drying.
Powdered rock salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and seasons it, helping to preserve the flesh.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a mild flavour that balances the saltiness of the cure.

The step that matters

Drying the salmon thoroughly. Salmon left with moisture remaining after curing can spoil, because bacteria grow in damp flesh. Thorough drying lowers the water content so the fish keeps well.

“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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