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Salmon Collared

A preserved salmon seasoned and simmered in vinegar and spices, then served in its own cooking liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Salmon Collared

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the head and tail of the salmon, wash, and scale it.

  2. Cut the fish in half lengthwise; reserve one half for another dish.

  3. Mix together 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, a good pinch of mace, and cayenne.

  4. Remove the bones and skin from the fish, spread it flat, and rub the inside with the seasoning.

  5. Roll up the fish and bind it firmly with string.

Poach and pickle

  1. In a stewpan, combine 1 pint of boiling water with ½ cup vinegar, 12 peppercorns, ½ teaspoon allspice, 2 cloves, 2 bay leaves, and salt to taste.

  2. Add the fish to the stewpan and simmer gently for about 1 hour.

  3. Once done, place the fish in a deep earthenware vessel and pour the cooking liquid over it.

  4. Let it sit until needed.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Adds acidity to the cooking liquid, sharpening the flavour of the fish and helping it keep.
Salmon
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky as it simmers gently.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 1 hour. At a rolling boil, the outside of the fish would toughen and break apart before the centre cooks. A gentle simmer cooks the salmon evenly and keeps it moist and tender.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, vinegar, allspice, clove, 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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