What spices go with salmon

The pairing that made the spice fashionable, and it holds up. Salmon is oily, pink and mildly sweet, and pink peppercorns give a resinous citric lift and a visible colour echo without adding heat that would fight the fish.

How: Crushed over seared or cured salmon; In a gravlax cure with dill and citrus

Add alongside: Dill, Lemon, Juniper

• Crush by hand and add at the end — cooked into a dish they contribute almost nothing.

Oily and smoked fish is the other half of the horseradish repertoire, and it works for the same reason as beef: fat needs sharpness, and horseradish gives it without the acidity that would firm the flesh. Central and Northern European cooking pairs it with smoked and cured fish as a matter of course, and chrain with gefilte fish is the same principle in a different tradition.

How: Creamed horseradish with hot-smoked salmon; Grated into soured cream as a dressing for cured fish; Chrain, white or beetroot-reddened, with gefilte fish

Add alongside: Dill, Lemon

• Creamed sauces are far milder than freshly grated root; season by tasting rather than by the recipe.

Scandinavian curing practice puts dill and salmon together and the seed does a different job from the herb: the herb is a fresh top note added at the end, while the seed goes into the cure or the poaching liquid, where carvone moves into the fish and gives a warmth that survives the salt. Oily fish needs something sharp against it and dill seed supplies that without acidity.

How: In a cure for gravadlax, alongside the herb rather than instead of it; In a court-bouillon for poached salmon

Add alongside: Dill, Mustard seed, Lemon

• Seed and herb are not alternatives here. A cure using only the seed tastes of rye bread and one using only the herb has no depth.

Smoked paprika and salmon is a natural fit: the smoke echoes the traditional smoking of the fish, and salmon's oil carries the fat-soluble colour and aroma well.

Add alongside: Garlic, Black pepper

Salmon is oily and distinctly flavoured, and fennel’s sweetness with its faint cooling quality cuts against that richness rather than sitting on top of it. The affinity extends to the fennel bulb and fronds, which are a standard accompaniment to the same fish.

How: Toasted and coarsely crushed into a rub before roasting or grilling; Whole seeds in a cure alongside dill and sugar

Add alongside: Dill, Black pepper, Lemon

• Ground fennel goes muddy against salmon; the coarse crush is doing textural work as well as aromatic work.

A standard of Chinese and Japanese fish cookery. Ginger is used specifically to counter the smell of fish — an explicit purpose in the culinary literature rather than an incidental effect — and its citric sharpness cuts the oiliness of salmon at the same time.

How: Julienned with spring onion over steamed fish; In a soy and rice wine marinade

Add alongside: Onion, White pepper, Fennel seed

• Fresh ginger only. Ground ginger against salmon tastes of baking spice and is a well-known way to spoil a good fillet.