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Stock for Aspic Jelly, Economical

A stock used to make economical aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Stock for Aspic Jelly, Economical

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the stock, gelatine, bay leaf, thyme, cloves, shallots, and mace.

  2. Heat the mixture until the gelatine dissolves.

  3. Pour it out and let it cool slightly.

  4. Whisk the egg white with water. Add the crushed eggshell. Add tarragon vinegar.

  5. Return the stock to the saucepan.

  6. Stir in the egg mixture over heat until it boils.

  7. Boil for 10 minutes.

  8. Let it settle for another 10 minutes.

  9. Strain through a jelly bag into a shallow dish.

  10. Refrigerate until cold and set.

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. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Thyme + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Stock
Provides the main liquid and savoury flavour of the aspic.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Egg white
Gathers impurities into a foam that clarifies the stock when it boils.
Shallots
Add aromatic onion-like flavour to the stock as it heats.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a sharp, acidic note that brightens the savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the egg white mixture into the stock. The egg white must be stirred in over heat until it boils so it can coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Stirring too vigorously or skipping the settling time leaves the aspic cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, clove, shallot, egg, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, clove, shallot, egg, tarragon, 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.

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