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Pickled Salmon

A method of preserving salmon by boiling it in a vinegar brine and packing it in a pickle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pickled Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Scald the salmon.

  2. Clean the salmon.

  3. Split the salmon.

  4. Cut the salmon into pieces.

Cook the salmon

  1. Layer the salmon pieces in a kettle with water and vinegar to cover them.

  2. Add salt, pepper, mace, and bay leaves.

  3. Boil the salmon until cooked.

  4. Drain the salmon.

  5. Lay the salmon on a cloth.

  6. Repeat the boiling process with remaining salmon pieces.

  7. Once all salmon is cold, pack it.

Pickle and store

  1. Cover the packed salmon with pickle.

  2. Place a heavy object on the fish to keep it submerged in the pickle.

  3. Occasionally pour off the pickle.

  4. Scald the pickle.

  5. Cover tightly 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.

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

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

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes
  4. Salmon + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together550 recipes
  5. Salmon + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 is cooked and then preserved in the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Bay leaves
Add a subtle aromatic, herbal flavor to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickle.

The step that matters

Keep the salmon fully submerged in the pickle. Fish exposed to air can spoil and develop off flavors, so the pickle must cover the packed salmon. Weighting it down and covering tightly keeps air out, which is what preserves it through storage.

Swap the mace

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

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

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