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Salmon to Collar

A boiled salmon rolled into a collar and stuffed with force-meat, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Salmon to Collar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the salmon well and dry it with a clean cloth.

  2. Rub the fish with the yolks of eggs.

  3. Make force-meat with the cut-off tail, removing the skin, and mix with chopped herbs, salt, mace, nutmeg, pepper, and grated bread.

  4. Spread the force-meat over the fleshy part of the salmon, adding more pepper and salt.

Form the collar

  1. Roll the fish into a collar and bind it with broad tape.

Boil and pickle

  1. Boil the collar in water, salt, vinegar, sweet herbs, sliced ginger, and nutmeg for about 2 hours.

  2. Transfer to a sousing pan and pour cold pickle over it, letting it stand until used.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Mace + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
The main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it poaches inside the collar.
Egg yolks
Rubbed on the fish, they add richness and help the surface set and take colour.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and helps bind the force-meat so it holds its shape.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid and pickle, sharpening flavour and firming the fish.

The step that matters

Binding the collar before boiling. The fish is rolled and tied with tape so the force-meat stays in place. Boiling gently keeps the flesh from breaking up and the collar from loosening as the proteins set.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, nutmeg, pepper, bread, vinegar, ginger. 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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