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Fillets of Fowl in Aspic

Fillets of fowl served in aspic with mayonnaise, salad, pickled beet mixture, and lemon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fillets of Fowl in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fowl

  1. Cut the breasts from the boiled fowls while hot, using a pointed knife close to the bone. Be careful not to tear the fillets apart.

  2. Dip the fillets in the stock they were boiled in.

  3. Dredge with coarse sea salt and white pepper.

  4. Press the fillets between two dishes to flatten.

Coat and serve

  1. Prepare a mayonnaise by mixing thick mayonnaise with one-third as much aspic jelly.

  2. Pour a coating of the mayonnaise mixture over each piece of fowl on large dishes.

  3. Prepare small dishes with a bed of chopped salad or minced eggs.

  4. Mix minced pickled beets, green pickles, and minced yolk of eggs just before serving.

  5. Dip the upper side of each fowl piece in the beet mixture and place on the serving dish.

  6. Garnish each end with a slice of lemon.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  2. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. White pepper + celerytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled fowls
Provide the lean white meat that forms the fillets, which hold their shape when pressed flat.
Mayonnaise
Forms a rich, creamy coating that carries the aspic and adds fat and smoothness.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gelatin layer that glazes the fowl and holds the coating in place.
Pickled beets
Add sharp acidity and a sweet-sour flavour that contrasts with the rich coating.

The step that matters

Pour the mayonnaise and aspic coating while it is still fluid. Aspic is gelatin, which sets as it cools. If the mixture is too cold or too thick, it will not spread into an even, smooth layer, and if it is too warm it can slide off the fillets before it sets.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, egg, lemon. 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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