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Aspic Jelly

A savory gelatin made from broth, vegetables, spices, and eggs, set with gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. Combine all ingredients except the sherry in a large pot.

  2. Whisk gently over medium heat until boiling.

  3. Allow to boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat, cover, and let settle for 8 to 10 minutes.

Clarify and finish

  1. Strain through a hot jelly bag 2 or 3 times until clear.

  2. Stir in the sherry and remove any froth from the top.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  3. Tarragon + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

  4. Allspice + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 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

Cox's instant powdered gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Whites and shells of 2 eggs
Attract impurities that rise and are caught, clarifying the liquid to clear.
Brown vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the clarified stock.
Lemon rind and juice
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the flavour of the stock.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a mellow, wine-based flavour stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Strain through a hot jelly bag until clear. Egg whites must be allowed to rise and bind impurities during simmering and settling. Straining through a hot bag, repeated until clear, removes these particles so the aspic sets sparkling rather than cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, lemon, vinegar, tarragon, carrot, celery, 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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