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Pickled Salmon

Pickled salmon preserved in vinegar with spices and sweet oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Cut the salmon into pieces and boil it until cooked.

  2. Lay the cooked salmon on a dry cloth until the next day.

Make the pickle

  1. In a pot, boil 2 quarts of vinegar with 1 quart of the cooking liquid, black pepper, allspice, and mace.

  2. Once the vinegar mixture is cold, place the salmon in a deep container and pour the vinegar over it.

Finish

  1. Drizzle a little sweet oil on top to help preserve it for up to a year.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Salmon + fishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Main protein, cooked first and then set in the spiced vinegar to be pickled.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Black pepper
Adds a sharp, warming aroma and spice to the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Contributes a warm, clove-like aroma to the pickling liquid.
Sweet oil
Forms a layer on the surface that helps keep the fish covered and protected.

The step that matters

Let the vinegar mixture cool before pouring it over the salmon. Hot liquid would keep cooking the already cooked fish and can make its texture soft and flaky rather than firm. Cooling it first keeps the salmon firmer and lets the pickle set more evenly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

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