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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) · 6 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

Cook the salmon

  1. Scale and clean the salmon, then cut it into pieces.

  2. Place the pieces in a kettle and cover with water.

  3. Add vinegar, salt, bay leaves, mace, and black pepper.

  4. Boil for 45 minutes.

  5. Drain the fish.

  6. Wrap the fish in a cloth.

  7. Repeat the process with remaining salmon.

Pickle and pack

  1. Adjust the pickle's flavor with more vinegar and salt if needed.

  2. Once cooled, pack the fish in a tub.

  3. Cover with the pickle, ensuring no air is trapped.

  4. Occasionally boil the pickle liquid.

  5. Occasionally skim the pickle liquid.

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

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

Salmon (in the method)
Its flesh is the main component, firming and turning opaque as it cooks in the pickle.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the fish in the pickle.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma to the pickle liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the pickle liquid.

The step that matters

Cover with the pickle, ensuring no air is trapped. Fish left exposed to air at its surface can spoil or grow mold. Keeping every piece fully submerged in the acidic pickle protects it during storage.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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