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Salmon, to Boil

A whole salmon boiled in salted vinegar water until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and fish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,078 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fill a pot with lukewarm water to cover the salmon.

  2. Add a handful of coarse sea salt and ½ cup of vinegar to the water.

Cook

  1. Bring the water to a gentle boil and remove any scum that rises.

  2. Cook the salmon for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on its thickness.

  3. Check for doneness when the eyes start to bulge and the fins pull out easily.

Serve

  1. Use a fish drainer to lift the salmon from the pot before serving.

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 + fishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Salmon + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main protein that turns flaky and opaque as it cooks gently in water.
Vinegar
Adds a mild acidity that brightens the flavour of the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a gentle boil. A rolling boil breaks the fish apart and toughens the outer layer, while a gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps the flesh tender and moist.

“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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