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Cold Salmon Pickled

A pickled salmon dish made by marinating leftover salmon in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cold Salmon Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bones from the leftover salmon and place it in a dish.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Boil the fish cooking liquid with the vinegar.

  2. Add whole pepper, allspice, salt, and bay leaf to the boiling mixture.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then pour it over the salmon.

Marinate and serve

  1. Allow the salmon to marinate for 10 hours 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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

  5. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover salmon
Is the main protein that the pickling liquid penetrates and flavours.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that firms the fish and gives the pickled sharp flavour.
Fish cooking liquid
Carries savoury flavour from the fish into the pickling liquid.
Whole pepper
Adds aromatic heat that infuses the pickling liquid during boiling.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before pouring it over the salmon. Pouring boiling liquid over fish would partly cook it and make its texture uneven. Cooling first lets the acidic marinade soak in gently and keep the flesh firm and moist.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, fish, 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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