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Salad

Salad of Pheasants a l’Aspic

A chilled salad of preserved pheasant, asparagus, peas, macedoine, lettuce, truffles, champignons, and aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Salad of Pheasants a l’Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the tin of preserved pheasant, wash it, and cut it into neat pieces.

  2. Prepare asparagus points, peas, and a macedoine of carrots, turnips, and peas.

  3. Shred the cos lettuces finely and set aside.

  4. Chop the truffles finely and place them on a plate.

  5. Drain and dry the preserved champignons with a cloth.

  6. Prepare 1 pint of liquid aspic jelly.

Make the aspic mould

  1. Place a 1-quart Charlotte mold in a pan with ice and water.

  2. Pour ½ cup of aspic jelly into the mold.

  3. Make four small piles of chopped truffles and macedoine of vegetables.

  4. Allow the aspic jelly to set.

  5. Add more aspic jelly to cover the vegetables and truffles.

  6. Arrange the prepared pheasant on top.

  7. Cover the pheasant with aspic jelly.

  8. Sprinkle shredded lettuce, macedoine, and chopped truffles over the top.

  9. Let the mixture set again.

  10. Continue layering with more pheasant and mushrooms for decoration.

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. Lettuce + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Asparagus + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Preserved pheasant
Forms the main meat layers, giving the salad its substance and flavour.
Liquid aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that holds the layers together and coats the ingredients.
Cos lettuces
Adds crisp, fresh texture contrasting with the set jelly and meat.
Truffles
Contributes a strong, earthy aroma that perfumes the dish.
Preserved champignons
Adds savoury mushroom flavour and a tender bite between the layers.

The step that matters

Allowing each aspic layer to set before adding the next. Aspic is a gelatin-based jelly that sets only when chilled. Pouring new layers onto liquid or barely set jelly makes them mix and blur, so each layer must be firm before the next is added.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, asparagus, carrot, turnip, lettuce, tarragon, truffle):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, asparagus, carrot, turnip, lettuce, tarragon, truffle. 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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