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Aspic Jelly

Aspic is a gelatinized meat stock made by simmering meat, seasoning, and setting with gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Berry and clove share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 22 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: egg

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Make broth by boiling chickens.

  2. After removing the bones, return them to the soup kettle and simmer for an hour.

  3. Add one quart of jellied stock, prepared as directed in the article on stock for soup.

  4. A short time before removing from the fire, add salt, pepper, celery seed (one-half teaspoonful), one allspice berry, one clove, and a small bunch of sweet herbs.

  5. Strain the liquid.

  6. Add the juice of one lemon to each quart of stock.

  7. If the liquid is not clear, add the white of an egg before adding the lemon juice.

Set and serve

  1. Strain into shallow pans, not more than one-half inch deep.

  2. Stand it in a cold place for twenty-four hours.

  3. Cut into small cubes and arrange on a low, glass dish.

  4. If the liquid is colored with fruit-coloring or caramel, arrange the cubes together for effect.

  5. If using gelatin, dissolve one box of gelatin in one cupful of cold water to every four pints of stock.

By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Berry + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,711 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  4. Allspice + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,144 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Jellied stock
Provides the body and gelling base that sets the aspic into a firm, sliceable mass.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the clear stock.
Gelatine
Adds gelling strength so the liquid sets firmly when chilled.

The step that matters

Clearing the liquid with egg white. If the stock is cloudy, the egg white must be added before the lemon juice. As the white is heated it gathers suspended particles, which are then strained out, leaving a clear aspic.

Flavor stand-ins for the berry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, cream, allspice, clove, lemon, flour, pepper):

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Limebetter flavor fit
  3. Berrythe original
  4. Figabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, cream, allspice, clove, lemon, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

More aspic recipes

Chicken 77Meat 26Tomato 25Jelly 16Lobster 14Beef 10 See all 167 →

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