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Rimaulade of Smelts

Smelt fish simmered in vinegar, sherry, mace, shallots, anchovies, and spices, then chilled and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rimaulade of Smelts

Ingredients

Directions

Poach

  1. Turn the smelts around and place them in a stewpan.

  2. Add water, vinegar, sherry wine, mace, shallots, whole white pepper, salt, and anchovies.

  3. Set the stewpan on the fire and let it boil slowly for about 10 minutes.

  4. Remove the stewpan from the heat and take the smelts out with a slotted spoon.

Cool and serve

  1. Pour the cooking liquid over the smelts and let them cool.

  2. Once cold, strain the liquid over the smelts and garnish with parsley or chopped aspic.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Vinegar + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Vinegar + shallottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps firm the fish while it poaches.
Anchovies
Contribute savoury depth to the poaching liquid.
Shallots
Add mild sweetness and aroma to the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Poaching slowly without a hard boil. Gentle simmering keeps the delicate smelts tender and intact, while a rolling boil would break up the flesh and toughen the proteins.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (smelt, vinegar, sherry, wine, mace, shallot, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, vinegar, sherry, wine, mace, shallot, parsley. 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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