Why it works: Salmon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,675 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
To Pickle Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the salmon
Boil the cleaned salmon gently until cooked through.
Remove the salmon and strain the cooking liquid.
Make the pickling liquid
Add bay leaves, peppercorns, and coarse sea salt to the liquid and bring to a boil.
Allow the mixture to cool, then add vinegar to taste.
Pickle the salmon
Pour the cooled mixture over the salmon.
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.
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Salmon + vinegartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 body of the dish and absorbs the flavour of the pickling liquid.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the salmon its sharp, tangy pickled flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the liquid and helps firm the surface of the fish.
- Bay leaves
- Add a herbal, aromatic note to the pickling liquid.
- Peppercorns
- Add a sharp, woody aroma and mild heat to the liquid.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before adding the vinegar and pouring it over the salmon. Hot liquid would further cook and break up the already cooked fish, leaving it soft and flaky. Vinegar's acid is what pickles the fish, so tasting and adjusting it once the liquid has cooled gives a more even, controlled sourness.
“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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