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Pickled Salmon a LA Turque

A pickled salmon dish preserved in vinegar, saffron, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Saffron and pistachio share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Pickled Salmon a LA Turque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Cut the salmon into slices.

  2. Dry the salmon slices on a cloth.

  3. Rub the salmon slices with salt.

  4. Fry the salmon slices in olive oil until browned on both sides.

Make the pickling liquor

  1. Combine vinegar, saffron-water, and caster sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Heat the mixture until just boiling.

Pack and pickle

  1. Cover the bottom of a jar with bay leaves and myrtle leaves.

  2. Layer the fried salmon slices in the jar, adding garlic, pistachios, peppercorns, mixed spices, and more bay and myrtle leaves between layers.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the top.

  4. Cover the jar with bay leaves and myrtle leaves.

  5. Place a plate with a weight on top to press the contents.

  6. Let the jar sit for three days.

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. Saffron + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Olive + pistachiotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Saffron + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Olive + saffrontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together716 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 frying it browns the surface for flavour.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the fish during pickling.
Olive oil
Carries the heat when frying, browning the salmon slices on both sides.
Caster sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
Saffron-water
Adds colour and a distinctive aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let the jar sit for three days. The vinegar needs time to penetrate the fried salmon and firm and flavour it; pressing under a weight keeps the slices submerged in the liquid so they pickle evenly.

Swap the pistachio

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, olive, vinegar, saffron, sugar, myrtle, garlic):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Cashew nutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, olive, vinegar, saffron, sugar, myrtle, garlic. 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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