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Salad

Mayonnaise of Fish

A chilled fish salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, eggs, and mayonnaise, topped with aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and endive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mayonnaise of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the fish and break it into large pieces.

  2. Wash the vegetables and drain well, then roll them in a towel to dry.

  3. Shell the eggs and cut each into eight pieces.

  4. Dip the tomatoes in boiling water to remove the skin, then slice or quarter them.

  5. Score and slice the cucumber, and tear or shred the lettuce.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Arrange the lettuce on a paper doily in the center of a dish.

  2. Lay the pieces of fish on top and cover with mayonnaise sauce.

  3. Garnish with the remaining vegetables; slice the aspic into fancy shapes and chop the trimmings finely.

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. Lettuce + endivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Lettuce + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  3. Endive + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together87 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Forms the main protein base, providing flavor and a flaky texture when flaked into large pieces.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds richness and moisture, coating the fish and vegetables with fat and creamy flavor.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, mild richness to the salad.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a gelatin that adds moisture and a glossy, cool finish to the dish.
Lettuce
Provides a crisp, fresh base that holds the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the washed vegetables. Excess water dilutes the mayonnaise and makes the lettuce soggy and the dish watery, so thorough drying keeps the salad crisp and the dressing clinging.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lettuce, endive, sauce, cucumber, egg):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lettuce, endive, sauce, cucumber, egg. 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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