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Aspic Jelly.— Hotel Method

Aspic is a gelatinized clear meat stock made with beef, eggs, lemon, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,658 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly.— Hotel Method

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clear stock

  1. Draw 4 quarts of clear soup stock from the stock boiler, seasoned with vegetables, adding a head of celery and a handful of parsley.

  2. Mix 2 pounds of finely chopped lean beef with 1 pint of cold water, then add to the stock and boil briefly.

  3. Strain the consomme from the beef through a fine strainer and refrigerate to remove grease.

Clarify and set

  1. Add the whites and shells of 6 eggs, juice of 4 lemons, 1 bay leaf, 1 tablespoon of bruised peppercorns or white pepper, 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt, and a ladleful of cold water to the strained stock.

  2. Stir in 4 ounces of white gelatin and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.

  3. Pour the mixture through a jelly strainer 3 or 4 times to clarify.

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. Lemon + white peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Beef + lemontop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,278 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + gelatintop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

Lean beef
Its proteins bind to floating particles as the stock heats, collecting them into a raft that clarifies the liquid.
Egg whites and shells
Whites trap fine sediment during heating, and shells add grit that helps the clarifying raft form.
White gelatin
Sets the clarified stock into a firm, clear jelly as it cools.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the egg proteins clump for clarifying.

The step that matters

Bringing the mixture to a boil while stirring. Stirring keeps the gelatin and egg-white raft from settling and sticking to the pan bottom and scorching. Gentle heating lets the raft form and trap particles, so the stock stays clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, lemon, gelatin. 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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