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Aspic or Savory Jelly

Aspic is a savory gelatin made from calf's feet, veal, ham, onions, carrots, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and water, thickened with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 463 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Aspic or Savory Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine calf's feet, veal, ham, onions, carrots, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and water in a large pot.

  2. Boil until the liquid reduces to 2 quarts.

  3. Skim and strain the broth.

  4. When cold, skim off the fat.

Clarify and set

  1. Return the broth to the pot and stir in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Bring to a boil, then let it simmer slowly for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain through a jelly bag into a mold.

  4. For flavor, add tarragon vinegar if desired.

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 + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together463 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + tarragontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet
Release gelatin that lets the broth set into a firm jelly when cooled.
Knuckle of veal
Adds body and savory flavor to the broth through its meat and connective tissue.
Lean ham
Contributes savory, salty depth to the stock.
Egg whites
Coagulate as the broth heats, trapping particles so the strained aspic is clear.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after adding the egg whites. Egg whites must be brought to a boil and then left to simmer slowly so they coagulate and collect impurities. Boiling hard or stirring can break up the raft, leaving the aspic cloudy.

Swap the tarragon

The recipe marks tarragon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, carrot, mace, egg, vinegar):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Tarragonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, carrot, mace, egg, vinegar. 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

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