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To Pot Salmon

A method of preserving salmon by seasoning, baking, and storing in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pot Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale the salmon.

  2. Dry the salmon.

  3. Slit the salmon down the back and remove the bone.

  4. Mix nutmeg, mace, pepper, and salt.

  5. Sprinkle the mixture over the fish.

  6. Let the fish sit for 2-3 hours.

Bake and drain

  1. Place the fish in a large pot with butter and bake for 1 hour.

  2. Let the fish drain.

  3. Cut the fish into pieces.

Pot and preserve

  1. Layer the pieces in pots with skin side up, placing a board and weight on top.

  2. When cold, pour clarified butter over the fish to preserve.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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
Forms the main body of the dish, providing protein and flaky texture when baked.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the fish tender during the long bake.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and draws out moisture, helping the spice mixture penetrate the flesh.
Clarified butter
Seals the fish from air in the pot, helping preserve it and adding richness.

The step that matters

Layering under a weight. Pressing the cut pieces under a board and weight packs them tightly so they hold together and excess moisture drains off. Pouring clarified butter only when the fish is cold lets it set into a seal rather than melt away.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, nutmeg, 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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