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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly made from brown stock, gelatin, spices, vinegar, sherry, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Remove all fat from the stock.

  2. Place the defatted stock in a saucepan.

Clarify and dissolve

  1. Add the gelatin, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, parsley, and vinegar.

  2. Stir over low heat until the gelatin dissolves without boiling.

  3. Beat the egg whites with cold water.

  4. Add the beaten egg whites to the mixture.

  5. Whisk the mixture briskly over heat until just boiling.

  6. Remove the mixture from heat.

  7. Simmer slowly for 10 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the jelly through a jelly bag without pressing it.

  2. Add the sherry.

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. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the stock into a clear, firm jelly as it cools.
Egg whites and shells
Attract cloudy particles so the jelly can be clarified to a clear finish.
Brown stock
Forms the flavour base and most of the volume of the jelly.
Sherry
Adds a light, aromatic sweetness and depth to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Whisk until just boiling, then stop. Whisking the egg whites into the hot stock lets them bind impurities and form a raft. Boiling hard breaks up the raft and leaves the jelly cloudy, so the mixture must be removed from heat as soon as it reaches a boil.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, parsley, vinegar, tarragon, sherry, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, parsley, vinegar, tarragon, sherry, 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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