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To Boil Frssh Salmon

A boiled salmon served with horseradish, parsley, and lobster sauce, finished with a spice‑infused cooling liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Boil Frssh Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the salmon

  1. Place the cleaned salmon on a strainer in a large pot.

  2. Fill the pot with cold water.

  3. Add ½ cup of coarse sea salt.

  4. Bring the water to a slow boil.

  5. Cook for 15 minutes per pound, checking doneness with a fork.

  6. Skim the surface to maintain color.

  7. Lift the strainer to drain the fish.

  8. Cover the fish with a soft napkin to keep it warm.

Serve

  1. Serve the salmon on a hot dish.

  2. Garnish with scraped horseradish and curled parsley.

  3. Add lobster sauce on the side.

Pickle and store

  1. Place the salmon in a deep dish and cover.

  2. Add whole pepper, allspice, vinegar, and salt to the reserved boiling water.

  3. Boil the mixture and then cool it.

  4. Pour the cooled mixture over the salmon and cover tightly.

  5. Store in a cold place or on ice for up to two days.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Horseradish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks in gently simmering water.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the poaching water and helps season the fish from the surrounding liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickling liquid, giving the fish a sharp, tangy flavor.
Whole allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic flavor to the pickling liquid.
Whole pepper
Contributes sharp aromatic heat to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a slow boil, not a hard boil. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly and keeps the flesh tender and moist. Vigorous boiling toughens the protein and breaks the fish apart, so the cook should check doneness with a fork rather than rely on time alone.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, horseradish, parsley, lobster, sauce, pepper, vinegar. 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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