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Smelts in Savoury Jelly

Smelts cooked in consommé and Madeira, then set in aspic jelly.

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 Savoury Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the smelts

  1. Combine smelts, consommé, Madeira, salt, green onion, and mushrooms in a stewpan.

  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.

Prepare the aspic

  1. Strain the cooking liquid through a double silk sieve into a bowl with clarified consommé for the aspic jelly.

  2. Prepare the aspic jelly according to package instructions.

Set and serve

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

  2. Once set, place the smelts in the mold head down and cover with just enough jelly to cover them.

  3. When the smelts are set, fill the mold to the top with jelly.

  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. Madeira wine + mushroomtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together176 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Madeira wine + oniontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together331 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 flesh, which cooks through gently in the stewing liquid.
Consommé
Supplies the savoury liquid that flavours the smelts and becomes the base of the aspic.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the cooking liquid.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the smelts are cooked through. Gentle heat cooks the delicate smelts evenly without breaking them apart or toughening the flesh. Vigorous boiling would make the fish fall apart and cloud the liquid that becomes the clear aspic.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, madeira wine, 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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