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To Dry Salmon

This recipe describes a method for drying a whole salmon using salt, saltpetre, bay salt, and coarse sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and sugar work together. They rank in the top 35% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 931 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

To Dry Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and salt

  1. Scale the salmon and remove the insides and roe.

  2. Rub the entire fish with common salt and let it hang for 24 hours to drain.

Cure

  1. Pound the saltpetre, bay salt, and coarse sugar together.

  2. Rub the mixture into the salmon and place it on a large dish for 2 days.

  3. After 2 days, rub the salmon again with common salt and let it sit for another 24 hours.

Dry

  1. Wipe the salmon well after draining and hang it in a dry place, keeping it open with two small sticks.

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 + sugartop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together931 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
The main protein; salting firms its flesh and draws out moisture as it cures.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the fish and keeps its flesh a pink colour during curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and softens the harshness of the cure.

The step that matters

Wiping the salmon well after draining. Removing surface moisture and salt residue lets the fish dry evenly. Wet surfaces stay damp longer, which encourages spoilage before the fish has properly dried.

“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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