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Salmi of Larks a LA Macedoine

A dish of preserved larks simmered in brown sauce with sherry, mushroom juice, glaze, tomato puree, and finished with liquid aspic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Salmi of Larks a LA Macedoine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the larks

  1. Open the tins of larks, remove any grease, and dry them with a cloth.

  2. Trim any protruding farce to make the larks uniform in size and shape.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the brown sauce, sherry, mushroom juice, and glaze; bring to a boil and reduce to the masking point.

  2. While boiling, add the tomato puree and strain the sauce through a tammy cloth into a quart saucepan.

  3. When the sauce begins to cool, stir in a little liquid aspic for shine.

Mask and arrange

  1. Mask the larks by dipping the breast part into the sauce, then arrange them on a sauté pan.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sherry + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together492 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sauce + mushroomtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 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

Brown sauce
Forms the body of the coating and gives the savoury base flavour.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.
Glaze
Concentrates savoury meat flavour and adds body to the sauce.
Mushroom juice
Adds earthy, umami savouriness to the sauce.
Tomato puree
Adds acidity, colour and depth to the sauce.
Liquid aspic
Adds gloss and shine to the finished coating.

The step that matters

Reducing the sauce to the masking point. Reduction evaporates water and concentrates flavour and natural gelatin, so the sauce thickens enough to coat evenly. Over-reducing makes it too thick and salty, while under-reducing leaves it thin and likely to run off the larks.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, sherry, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, sherry, mushroom. 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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