Skip to main content
Main

To Collar Salmon

A method of preparing salmon by rubbing with spices, wrapping, and simmering in vinegar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Collar Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the salmon and wash it thoroughly.

  2. Mix coarse sea salt, white pepper, ground mace, and allspice.

  3. Rub this mixture inside and out of the salmon.

  4. Roll the salmon tightly and bandage it.

Poach

  1. In a pot, combine enough water and vinegar to cover the salmon, adding bay leaves and black pepper.

  2. Cover the pot and simmer until the salmon is cooked through.

  3. Drain the salmon.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil the skin quickly.

  2. Cover the skin when cold.

  3. Serve with fennel.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main body of the dish, and its protein firms and sets as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid, sharpening the flavour of the fish.
Ground mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the seasoned fish.
Allspice
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour that rounds out the seasoning.
Bay leaves
Adds a herbal, aromatic note to the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until cooked through. Gentle simmering cooks the salmon evenly and keeps it moist. A hard boil toughens the proteins and can break the fish apart, so keep the liquid at a quiet simmer.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, mace, allspice, 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.

You might also like

Salmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipesSmoked SalmonSmoked Salmon14 recipes