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Collared Salmon

A whole salmon seasoned with cayenne, white pepper, sea salt, mace, and black and white pepper, then simmered in water and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Collared Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the head, shoulders, and thin part of the tail from the salmon.

  2. Split the salmon and wash it thoroughly.

Season and roll

  1. Mix cayenne pepper, white pepper, coarse sea salt, and pounded mace. Rub the mixture inside and outside the fish.

  2. Roll the fish and bandage it with broad tape.

Poach and set

  1. Place it in a saucepan and cover with water and vinegar. Add whole black and white pepper and some salt.

  2. Cover the lid tightly and simmer until cooked through.

  3. Strain the liquid and let it cool.

  4. Pour the cooled liquid 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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Salmon
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes flaky and tender when simmered.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid, brightening the flavour of the fish.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that flavours the poaching liquid and fish.
White pepper
Adds mild, earthy heat to the seasoning and poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer until cooked through. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer with the lid on. A hard boil breaks the fish apart and toughens the flesh, while underheating leaves it unsafe and unset.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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