Name: To Pickle Salmon or Herrings
Ingredients: fresh salmon; water; vinegar; fennel; salt; whole pepper

Why it works: Fennel and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,216 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pickle Salmon or Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the salmon into pieces and remove the insides without washing it.
In a pot, combine equal parts water and vinegar, add fennel, salt, and whole pepper.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Place the salmon in the boiling mixture and cook for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove the salmon and place it in a storage vessel.
Once the pickling liquid cools, pour it over the salmon, ensuring it is submerged and covered to keep out 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.

Fennel + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,216 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Salmon + fenneltop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together253 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Vinegar + fenneltop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together505 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Salmon + vinegartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,675 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).