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Salmon Collared

A preserved salmon rolled and simmered with spices, vinegar, and water, served with fennel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and fennel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,216 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Salmon Collared

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Split the salmon to make a roll.

  2. Wash and wipe the fish.

  3. Mix coarse sea salt, white pepper, pounded mace, and Jamaica pepper to season the fish.

  4. Rub the seasoning inside and out of the fish.

  5. Roll the fish tightly and bandage it.

Poach and serve

  1. Cover the fish with water and ⅓ cup vinegar, adding bay leaves, salt, and black pepper.

  2. Cover tightly and simmer until cooked through.

  3. Drain the cooking liquid and boil it quickly, then let it cool.

  4. Serve the salmon 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. Pepper + fenneltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,216 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Salmon + fenneltop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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, and its flesh sets into firm slices when poached and cooled.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the poaching liquid and the fish.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and draws out moisture, helping the flesh hold its shape.

The step that matters

Simmer until cooked through, covered. Salmon turns dry and tough if it simmers too hard or too long. Gentle, covered heat cooks the fish evenly while keeping it moist and tender.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, mace, pepper, vinegar, fennel. 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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