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Spiced Salmon

A salmon fillet pickled in vinegar, salt, pepper, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,890 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Spiced Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix salt and water with vinegar in a bowl.

  2. Cut the salmon into slices.

Cook and pack

  1. Boil the salmon in the vinegar mixture until cooked.

  2. Let the salmon cool, then pack it tightly in a pan.

Cover and set

  1. Pour the boiling liquid and spices over the salmon to cover completely.

  2. Cover the pan tightly to exclude air.

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 + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Vinegar + salmontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + salmontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,446 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

Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Salmon fillets
Main protein; cooking firms the flesh and turns it opaque.
Whole black pepper
Adds a sharp, warm aroma and gentle heat to the brine.
Cinnamon
Adds a warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the sharp vinegar.

The step that matters

Covering the salmon completely with the boiling liquid. Fish left exposed above the liquid can spoil and dry out. Covering it fully keeps the surface in the acidic, salty brine, and a tight lid keeps out air.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

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