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Rimaulade of Smelts

Smelt fish simmered in water, vinegar, sherry, mace, shallots, anchovies, and spices, then served with parsley or aspic garnish.

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. In a stewpan, combine the smelts, water, vinegar, sherry wine, mace, shallots, whole white pepper, salt, and anchovies.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Cool and serve

  1. Remove the smelts with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool.

  2. Strain the cooking liquid and pour it over the cooled smelts.

  3. Garnish with parsley or chopped aspic before serving.

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

Smelts
The main fish, cooked gently in the poaching liquid until tender.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps firm the fish's texture during poaching.
Anchovies
Contribute savoury depth to the poaching liquid, rounding out the sharp acidity.
Shallots
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after boiling. Once the liquid boils, reducing the heat to a gentle simmer keeps the delicate smelts from breaking apart and toughening while they cook through.

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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