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Cream of Fish

A chilled fish aspic made with cold fish, aspic jelly, cream, tomato aspic, gelatine, lettuce, mayonnaise, seasoning, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Set a little tomato aspic in a border mold.

Make the fish mixture

  1. Pound the fish.

  2. Mix in seasoning, whipped cream, whipped aspic, and melted gelatine.

  3. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Turn out and serve

  1. Turn out when set.

  2. Place lettuce in the center.

  3. Top with mayonnaise.

  4. Chop the tomato aspic.

  5. Arrange it around the 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. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fish + tomatotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hepten-3-one (metal).

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 body of the mousse-like filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and a light, airy texture when whipped.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Aspic jelly
Adds savoury flavour and helps the mixture set with a smooth texture.
Mayonnaise
Adds richness and fat to the finished dish on top.

The step that matters

Turn out when set. Gelatine must be fully set before unmoulding, or the mixture will slump and lose its shape. Chilling until firm gives it enough structure to hold the border mold's outline.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cream, tomato, lettuce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, tomato, lettuce. 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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