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Salmon Moulded in Jelly

A molded salmon aspic made with gelatin, stock, egg white, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salmon Moulded in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatine in enough cold water to cover it.

  2. Heat the gelatine in a saucepan with the clear stock until dissolved, then let it cool.

  3. Whisk the egg white with cold water and tarragon vinegar, then stir into the jelly.

  4. Allow the mixture to boil for 10 minutes without stirring once scum forms.

  5. Set aside to settle for 10 minutes, then strain through a jelly bag until clear.

Set and serve

  1. Boil the salmon in a small amount of water until cooked, then cool and cut into 1‑inch squares.

  2. Pour a little jelly into a mold and arrange pieces of salmon, alternating skin and pink flesh on the outside.

  3. Let the jelly set, then add another layer of salmon and cover with jelly, repeating until the mold is full.

  4. Once completely cold, turn the jelly out of the mold.

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 + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + salmontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + tarragontop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Tarragon + salmontop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together249 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Vinegar + salmontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the clear stock into a firm jelly that holds the salmon in shape.
Egg white
Clarifies the stock by trapping particles, which are then strained out for a clear jelly.
Salmon
Forms the cooked fish filling that is set inside the jelly.
Clear stock
Provides the liquid base that the gelatine sets into a savoury jelly.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a light acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.

The step that matters

Clarifying the jelly by boiling with egg white. The egg white coagulates as it heats, collecting cloudiness and scum. Stirring after scum forms breaks up the raft and leaves the jelly cloudy, so it must be left undisturbed, then strained through a jelly bag until clear.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, salmon):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Tarragonthe original
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, salmon. 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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