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Fish Salad in Jelly

A gelatinated fish salad with celery, cucumber, apple, and vinegar, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fish Salad in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 2 minutes.

  2. Add vinegar, lemon juice, boiling water, sugar, and salt to the soaked gelatin.

  3. Strain the mixture and, when it begins to set, add the remaining ingredients.

Set and serve

  1. Turn into a mold or small molds and chill.

  2. Serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing, if desired.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Celery + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Lemon + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 gel that holds the fish and vegetables in place.
Fish
Provides the main protein and flesh that forms the body of the salad.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sugar and cuts through the richness of the fish.
Sugar
Balances the sourness of the vinegar and lemon juice for a sweet-sour flavour.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft gel and tender fish.

The step that matters

Adding the remaining ingredients at the right moment. Gelatin must be partly set before the fish, vegetables and fruit are stirred in. If it is still liquid, the pieces sink and settle unevenly; if it has set too firmly, they will not distribute and the mixture will be lumpy.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, celery, vinegar, lemon, cucumber, sugar, gelatin):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, celery, vinegar, lemon, cucumber, sugar, gelatin. 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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