Name: Salmon, Pickled.
Ingredients: Remains of boiled salmon; ½ cup vinegar; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; Equal quantities of tarragon vinegar; Melted butter; A little anchovy sauce; Onion

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salmon, Pickled.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the bone from the boiled salmon and place it in a deep dish.

Make the pickle

Mix vinegar, pepper, salt, tarragon vinegar, melted butter, anchovy sauce, and chopped onion in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.
When cooled, pour the mixture over the salmon.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together535 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Provides the sharp acidity that makes the pickling liquid tangy and preserves the fish.
Tarragon vinegar: Adds a distinct herbal, aromatic note to the pickling liquid.
Melted butter: Contributes fat and richness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Anchovy sauce: Adds savoury depth and salty umami to the pickling liquid.
Onion: Contributes aroma and a mild savoury sharpness to the pickle.

Swap the onion

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

Shallotfits better
Mustardfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, pepper, tarragon, butter, anchovy, sauce. 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.