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Aspic Jelly for Salads

Aspic jelly made from clear beef stock, celery, onion, peppercorns, cloves, egg white, and gelatin, set in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly for Salads

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add one and one-half pints of clear beef stock (or chicken/veal stock) to a box of gelatin, the white of one egg, half a cupful of cold water, 2 cloves, 1 large slice of onion, 12 peppercorns, 1 stalk of celery, and salt to taste.

  2. Soak the gelatin in cold water until dissolved.

  3. Cook the dissolved gelatin with the egg white beaten with a little of the cold stock.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture through a napkin, pour into a large mold or several small ones, and set aside to harden.

  6. Before it hardens, add asparagus tips or cooked cauliflower.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

390Calories
31 gProtein
17 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin (in the method)
Sets the clear stock into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Clear beef stock
Provides the main liquid and the savoury flavour of the aspic.
Egg white
Beaten into the cooking liquid, it collects impurities so the aspic stays clear when strained.

The step that matters

Straining through a napkin. Gelatin mixtures cloud if they are disturbed or boiled hard after the egg white is added. Egg white clings to particles as it cooks, and straining through a fine cloth removes them, leaving a clear aspic.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, onion, pepper, corn):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, onion, pepper, corn. 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.

More aspic recipes

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

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