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Salmon, Collared

A salmon fillet seasoned, rolled, and simmered in a vinegar and spice broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Salmon, Collared

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the head and tail of the salmon.

  2. Wash and scale the salmon.

  3. Cut the salmon in half lengthwise.

  4. Remove the bones and skin from one half of the fish.

  5. Spread the fish flat on a surface.

  6. Mix together the salt, black pepper, mace, and cayenne. Rub the inside of the fish with the seasoning.

  7. Roll up the fish tightly and bind it with string.

Poach and pickle

  1. In a stewpan, combine boiling water and vinegar in a ratio of 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water. Add the peppercorns, allspice, cloves, bay leaves, and salt to the liquid.

  2. Place the fish in the stewpan and simmer gently for about 1 hour.

  3. Once cooked, transfer the fish to a deep earthenware vessel. Pour the cooled cooking liquid over the fish. Let it sit until ready to use.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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, once poached, becomes firm and flaky.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fish in the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 1 hour. Boiling vigorously breaks the delicate fish apart and toughens the flesh. A gentle simmer cooks it evenly while keeping it moist and intact inside the roll.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, pepper, allspice, clove. 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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