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Salt, Cayenne, and Lemon-juice
Half a pint of Aspic Jelly for decoration.
Cook the haddock in the oven on a greased baking-sheet covered with a greased paper, then take the fish off the bone and chop it very small.
Melt the gelatine, and stir it into the cream and the white sauce, stir in the fish, add salt, cayenne, lemon-juice, and a few drops of tarragon vinegar.
Decorate the bottoms of the timbale moulds with coral, and hard-boiled yolk of egg rubbed through a sieve, set in a little jelly, and when set, put in some of the haddock mixture, fill up carefully with more liquid aspic jelly and set. When set, turn out, and serve with chopped jelly round.
This is the tail end of a page whose ingredient list has been separated from its method — the title is simply the last line of the ingredients, so quantities of haddock, cream, white sauce and gelatine are not given. It is workable if you treat it as a technique rather than a formula.
- What is missingOnly the half pint of aspic for decoration is specified. As a working proportion for a cold fish timbale, count roughly equal volumes of finely chopped cooked fish and cold béchamel, a few spoonfuls of cream, and enough gelatine to set the whole firmly enough to unmould — a teaspoon of powdered gelatine per cup of mixture at the least, and probably more. The original does not even say whether sheet or powdered gelatine is intended, so nothing here supports a firmer conversion.
- Imperial half pintAn imperial half pint is 10 imperial fluid ounces, about 9½ US fluid ounces or a shade under 1¼ US cups — roughly a fifth more than an American half pint. Worth allowing for when you buy or make the aspic.
- Cooking the haddockBaking-sheet, greased paper, and no oven heat given in the original beyond "in the oven". A moderate oven, around 350F for 12 to 18 minutes depending on thickness, until the flesh just parts, is a reasonable modern reading. Overcooked haddock goes dry and stringy and no amount of cream will hide it in a cold mould.
- Aspic jellyA clarified, well-flavoured fish or light meat stock set with gelatine, at the strength where it holds a clean edge but still melts on the tongue. Commercial aspic powder exists; a strong homemade fish fumet with gelatine and an egg-white clarification is better. It must be liquid but cool when poured, or it will warm the layer beneath and blur the decoration.
- CoralThe roe of a hen lobster, which turns bright scarlet when cooked and was dried and sieved for colour. It is not sold separately now. Sieved cooked lobster or salmon roe, or a little paprika-tinted sieved yolk, gives the same effect.
- Timbale mouldsSmall deep moulds, of the dariole type, in the region of 3 to 4 fl oz each. How many the recipe fills cannot be worked out, since the half pint of aspic is for decoration only and no quantity of fish is given. Ramekins work; anything wider than it is tall will not turn out cleanly.
- The hinge: set each layer separatelyThe decoration is fixed in a thin film of jelly and allowed to set hard before the fish goes in, and the fish is set before the final aspic is poured. Rushing any stage lifts the coral and yolk off the base and the pattern is lost. Allow 20 to 30 minutes chilled between layers and at least three hours for the finished moulds.
- Turning out and servingDip the mould for two or three seconds in hot water, wipe, and invert onto a chilled plate. The chopped jelly round the base is aspic set flat in a shallow tray, then cut with a wet knife — it should sparkle rather than smear. Serve cold, as a savoury or light first course.
Timbales of aspic like this one might appear as a savoury or light first course, or among the cold entrées and hors d'œuvre, at late-Victorian and Edwardian dinners, and they show what professional cookery of that period valued: a cheap fish transformed by labour. Haddock cost little; clarified aspic, sieved lobster coral and hand-decorated dariole moulds cost hours. Elaborate cold moulded work of this kind is generally traced to the French cuisine classique that English kitchens absorbed through Carême and later Escoffier, where the chaud-froid and the aspic-lined mould were the showpieces of the cold larder. It survived in hotel and club kitchens well into the twentieth century, and vanished with the brigade of cooks required to make it.