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To Pickle Salmon

A method for pickling salmon in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Pickle Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickle

  1. Place the cleaned and split salmon in a stewpan and cover with water.

  2. In a separate pot, combine 3 quarts of water, 1 pint of vinegar, bay leaves, mace, salt, and black pepper.

Cook the salmon

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil and then add the salmon, cooking until done.

  2. Remove the salmon, drain it, and place it on a cloth.

  3. Layer more salmon in the kettle, pour the prepared liquid over it, and continue cooking until done.

Pickle and store

  1. Transfer the fish to a deep dish and cover with the pickle.

  2. If the pickle is not sufficiently acidic, add more vinegar and salt, then boil for 40 minutes.

  3. Keep the air away from the fish and occasionally drain, skim, and boil the liquid if stored for a long time.

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

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

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes
  4. Salmon + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together550 recipes
  5. Salmon + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Mace and pepper 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

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Salmon
The main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks in the pickling liquid.
Bay leaves
Adds a subtle aromatic, herbal note to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickle.

The step that matters

Checking the pickle's acidity. Vinegar acidity is what keeps the fish safe during storage. If the pickle is too weak, the fish can spoil, so acidity should be checked and adjusted before the fish is covered.

Swap the mace

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

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

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