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Smelts in Savory Jelly

Smelts cooked in a savory aspic made from consomme and Madeira, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Smelts in Savory Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the smelts

  1. Combine smelts, consomme, Madeira, salt, green onion, and mushrooms in a stew pan.

  2. Stew gently until the smelts are cooked through.

  3. Carefully remove the smelts with a skimmer and place them on a plate to cool.

Make the aspic

  1. Strain the cooking liquid through a double silk sieve into clarified consomme.

  2. Prepare aspic jelly using the strained liquid.

Set and serve

  1. In a large mold set in ice, fill it halfway with the jelly.

  2. Once the jelly is set, place the smelts in the mold head down and cover with more jelly.

  3. When the jelly is fully set, fill the mold to the top.

  4. To serve, dip the mold in warm water and turn it out onto a dish.

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. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  2. Smelt + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Smelt + mushroomtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27 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

Smelts
Provide the main fish body, which stays whole and is displayed inside the clear jelly.
Consomme
Supplies the savoury liquid that cooks the fish and becomes the base for the clear aspic.
Madeira
Adds a rich, slightly sweet, fortified-wine aroma to the cooking liquid and aspic.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavour and moisture to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Fill the mold in layers, letting each layer set. Pouring warm jelly over the smelts before the layer below is firm can disturb the fish and cause it to float or shift. Chilling the mold on ice and waiting for each layer to set keeps the smelts suspended in place and the aspic clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, 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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