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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly is a gelatinized meat stock made with water, salt, vinegar, spices, onions, eggs, and clarified with a jelly bag.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. Put all the ingredients into a jelly-pan (except the sherry) and whisk gently over the fire until boiling.

  2. Allow the mixture to boil up well and simmer for 10 minutes.

  3. Take it off the fire, put on the lid and let it settle for 8 or 10 minutes.

Clarify and finish

  1. Strain the mixture through a hot jelly-bag, repeating 2 or 3 times until it is clear and bright.

  2. Add the sherry, remove froth from the top, and use as required.

  3. Increase the proportion of gelatin if the jelly is to be used to support anything solid.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

153Calories
9 gProtein
6 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Tarragon1 tsp dried (0.5g)2
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Saucenot 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 Hamilton, Margaret. 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. Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Tarragon + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites and shells help clarify the stock by trapping cloudy particles as it simmers.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the clear jelly.
Bay leaves
Add a subtle aromatic herbal note to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Strain through a hot jelly-bag until clear. Straining while hot and repeating the pass removes cloudy particles so the jelly sets clear and bright. Letting the mixture settle first helps the solids stay behind.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tarragon, vinegar, sauce, allspice, lemon, egg, shallot):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, vinegar, sauce, allspice, lemon, egg, shallot. 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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