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Aspic Jelly

A gelatinous dish made from simmered meat, bones, and vegetables, clarified with egg whites and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine chopped calves' feet, ham or bacon, game, poultry, cutlet trimmings, uncooked meat, onions, carrots, clove, garlic, spices, herbs, pepper, and salt in a stewpan.

  2. Add 1½ cups of cold water or broth.

  3. Cover the pot.

  4. Heat on a brisk fire, shaking occasionally.

  5. When the meat begins to color, add 1½ cups of hot water or broth.

  6. Simmer for 3-4 hours.

  7. Strain the mixture through a fine strainer.

  8. Remove any fat once cooled.

Clarify and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites in a saucepan.

  2. Melt the jelly slightly.

  3. Stir in the egg whites over heat until boiling.

  4. Boil for a few minutes.

  5. Add ⅓ cup of white tarragon vinegar.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Calves' feet
Release gelatin, which sets the cooled liquid into a firm jelly.
Egg whites
Bind to impurities as they heat, so they can be removed to leave a clear aspic.
White tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the clear jelly.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg whites until boiling. Egg white proteins coagulate as they heat and trap cloudy particles. Stirring them in while the liquid is brought to a boil, then letting it settle, lets the impurities rise and be strained off, giving a clear jelly. Stirring too late or too hard can leave it cloudy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, onion, carrot, garlic, pepper, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, onion, carrot, garlic, pepper, egg. 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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