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Haddock Creams

A chilled haddock mousse with aspic, tomato pulp, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Haddock Creams

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the moulds

  1. Decorate small dariole moulds with a thin layer of aspic and tarragon and chervil leaves.

Make the haddock puree

  1. Place the haddock in the oven with butter on top and cook for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove skin and bones, then pound the fish in a mortar until smooth and let cool.

Make the cream mixture

  1. Melt the gelatine in the tomato pulp.

  2. Whip the cream until stiff, then fold in the mayonnaise and remaining aspic jelly.

  3. Strain the tomato sauce into the cream mixture and stir in the haddock puree.

Set and serve

  1. Fill the moulds with the mixture and refrigerate to set.

  2. Turn out onto a cold dish, decorate with chopped aspic and small salad, and serve.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Haddock + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together181 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Tomato + cherviltop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main flavour and body of the creams once pounded smooth.
Heavy cream
Whipped to give the set creams a light, airy texture.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so the creams hold their shape when turned out.
Aspic jelly
Adds savoury flavour and a glossy, set jelly coating to the creams.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and richness to the cream mixture.
Tomato pulp
Adds acidity and colour, and carries the dissolved gelatine.

The step that matters

Whip the cream until stiff. Cream that is under-whipped stays runny and will not give a light set texture, while over-whipping turns it grainy and can cause it to split when folded. Stop when it holds firm peaks.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, cream, tarragon, chervil, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, cream, tarragon, chervil, butter. 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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