Skip to main content
Salad

Jellied Fish

Fish set in a gelatin mould with capers, pimentos and lemon juice, served cut into portions on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Capers and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,222 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Jellied Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Mix the fish with the capers and pimentos.

  2. Arrange the fish mixture in a mold.

Make the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in 2 tablespoons of cold water.

  2. Add the boiling water to the gelatin and stir until dissolved.

  3. Mix in the lemon juice and salt.

  4. Pour the gelatin mixture carefully over the fish.

Set and serve

  1. Set in a cool place to harden.

  2. Once set, cut into portions.

  3. Serve on lettuce with salad dressing.

  4. Optionally, add sliced celery or hard-boiled eggs to the fish.

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. Capers + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Gelatin + lemontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  3. Capers + gelatintop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly once it cools.
Fish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, set within the gelatin.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny flavor that contrasts with the fish.
Pimentos
Add mild sweetness and color to the fish mixture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the fish and gelatin.

The step that matters

Pouring the gelatin over the fish. Gelatin must be fully dissolved in the boiling water before it is poured, or it will set unevenly and leave grainy or rubbery patches. Pour slowly so the fish mixture is evenly coated rather than disturbed.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, lemon):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, lemon. 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.

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes