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Souvenirs De Saumon a LA Gelee

Salmon fillets served in a savory aspic with truffle garnish and a decorative pastry border.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Souvenirs De Saumon a LA Gelee

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the salmon

  1. Skin the salmon and cut it into slices, then cut the slices into heart-shaped pieces.

  2. Use the trimmings of fish for fish essence.

Poach the salmon

  1. In a sauté pan, melt butter.

  2. Add the carrot, sliced thinly, to the pan.

  3. Add the bouquet garni to the pan.

  4. Arrange the salmon slices in the pan.

  5. Season the salmon slices with salt and pepper.

  6. Add the wine to the pan.

  7. Cover the pan with buttered paper.

  8. Cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10-15 minutes.

  9. Transfer the salmon to a wire rack to cool.

Mask and decorate

  1. When cold, mask each piece with chaud-froid sauce flavored with fish essence and colored with tomato or pimiento pulp.

  2. Place a star-shaped slice of truffle in the center of each piece.

  3. Coat each piece with a layer of aspic.

Assemble the dish

  1. Prepare an open-work border of paste baked to a golden brown.

  2. Place the border on a round dish.

  3. Create a cone-shaped support of bread, dipped in batter and fried.

  4. Cover the support with chopped green aspic.

  5. Lay each slice of salmon in a heart or kite-shaped case with a bottom covered in shredded, seasoned salad.

  6. Arrange the cases around the support, leaning them against the border.

  7. Insert a garnish in the center.

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. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lettuce + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together976 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lettuce + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the dish and is gently cooked so it stays moist and tender.
Butter
Enriches the pan and adds richness to the fish during gentle cooking.
Chablis
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, flavoring the salmon as it cooks.
Aspic
Sets into a clear jelly that glazes and protects each piece of salmon.
Truffles
Add an earthy aroma and a decorative focal point on each salmon piece.

The step that matters

Cooling the salmon before masking. The salmon must be fully cold before the chaud-froid sauce is applied. A warm piece would melt or thin the sauce, so it would not set into an even, smooth coat.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, pepper, sauce, lettuce, truffle, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, pepper, sauce, lettuce, truffle, flour. 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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