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Salmon, to Boil

A whole salmon boiled in salted vinegar water until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Salmon and fish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,078 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fill a pot with lukewarm water to cover the salmon.

  2. Add a handful of coarse sea salt and ¼ cup of vinegar to the water.

Cook

  1. Bring the water to a gentle boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Cook the salmon for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on its thickness.

  3. Check for doneness when the eyes start to bulge and the fins pull out easily.

Serve

  1. Let the fish rest on a drainer for a minute before serving.

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

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

  2. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Salmon + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Is the main protein; gentle simmering cooks it through while keeping the flesh moist and tender.
Vinegar
Adds a light acidity that brightens the flavour of the poaching liquid and the fish.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a gentle boil. A rolling boil agitates and toughens the proteins on the outside of the fish before the centre is cooked, leaving it dry and ragged. A gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps the flesh moist and flaky.

“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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