French · Provence · main

Le Grand Aïoli

Le Grand Aïoli reads salinity 4.7, citrus 4.3 and richness 4.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a French · Provence main, about 37 hr 9 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 5.4 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 3.2 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 5.5 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 2.2 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 4.4 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 4.2 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Salinity 4.7 · Citrus 4.3 · Richness 4.1 · Sourness 3.9 · Allium 3.7 · Umami 3.1 · Sweetness 2.8 · Warm Spice 2.1 · Marine & Briny 2.0 · Herbaceous 2.0 · Earthy 2.0 · Bitterness 1.7 · Fruity 1.2 · Floral 1.2 · Heat 1.2 · Funk & Ferment 1.0 · Nutty 0.9

What's in it (15)

• salt cod — 800 g
• garlic — 40 g
• egg yolk — 200 g
• light olive oil — 368 g
• salt — 5 g
• lemon juice — 15 g
• potatoes — 800 g
• carrots — 500 g
• green beans — 400 g
• cauliflower — 600 g
• eggs — 300 g
• artichokes — 500 g
• bay leaf — 1 g
• fennel — 100 g
• black peppercorns — 600 g

Time & effort: about 37 hr 9 min (1 hr 9 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 74.4 kcal, 3.7 g protein, 2.2 g fat, 12.5 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

1. Start two days ahead. Soak the salt cod in a large bowl of cold water in the fridge for 36 hours, changing the water four times. At the end, break off a flake and taste it raw: it should read as seasoned, not salty. Under-soaked cod cannot be rescued later.
2. Make the aïoli in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle if you have one. Pound the garlic with the coarse salt until it is a completely smooth ivory cream — 3 or 4 minutes, and no shred of garlic left. The salt is doing the grinding, so do not skip it.
3. Work in the egg yolks until the paste is thick and sticky. Then begin the oil: literally drop by drop at first, turning the pestle in one direction without stopping, until you see the sauce seize and stiffen. Only once it has taken can you move to a thin thread. Poured in fast, it will break every time.
4. Finish with the lemon juice. The aïoli should be dense enough that the pestle stands up in it for a moment. If it splits, start a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and beat the broken sauce into it a teaspoon at a time.
5. Boil the potatoes and carrots separately in salted water, 20 to 25 minutes for the potatoes and 15 for the carrots, until a knife goes in with slight resistance. Hard-boil the eggs 9 minutes and cool them under the tap.
6. Steam the green beans 6 minutes, the cauliflower 8 and the artichokes 15, each on its own so that nothing is overcooked to accommodate anything else. Every vegetable should still have its own texture on the plate.
7. Cut the drained cod into eight pieces and lay them in a wide pan with the bay, fennel and peppercorns. Cover with cold water and bring it very slowly to 75°C (170°F) — you want a wisp of steam and no bubbles at all. Hold it there 8 minutes off the heat and lift the fish out. Boiled salt cod turns to dry threads; this is the whole technique.
8. Pile everything on one big platter, warm vegetables and warm cod together, with the mortar of aïoli in the middle. In Provence this is a Friday dish and a village feast dish, eaten slowly and with a great deal of bread.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Huachinango a la Veracruzana — Mexican · Veracruz
• Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon and Olives (Djaj Mcharmel) — Moroccan
• Brandade de Morue Nîmoise — French · Languedoc
• Zucchini and Feta Fritters with Lemon Yogurt — Greek
• Greek Chicken Souvlaki Salad Bowls — Greek

Keep reading: what salinity, citrus, richness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.