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Aspic Jelly

Aspic is a gelatinized meat stock made with beef, gelatin, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,193 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water until soft.

  2. Heat the white stock in a six-quart stewpan.

  3. Add the chicken carcasses, if using, and salt to taste.

  4. Add the softened gelatin to the hot stock and stir until the gelatin has melted.

Clarify

  1. Mince the gravy beef and place it in a basin.

  2. Add the egg whites to the minced beef and mix until the mixture is compacted.

  3. Stir the beef mixture into the stewpan with the stock.

  4. Add shredded onion, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and celery.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  6. Remove the stewpan from heat.

  7. Cover the stewpan and let the mixture simmer slowly for 10 minutes.

  8. Let it sit in a warm place for 20 minutes to settle.

  9. Carefully pour off the clear liquid through a clean cloth into a basin.

Set and keep

  1. The next morning, skim off any fat from the top.

  2. The remaining liquid will set into jelly.

  3. To preserve the jelly, boil it daily.

  4. Clear the surface of scum with clean paper.

  5. Add Madeira as needed, but do not mix the Madeira with the jelly stock.

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. Thyme + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Thyme + coriandertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

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

  4. Coriander + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Provides the setting power that turns the clarified stock into a firm jelly.
Gravy beef
Its minced protein gathers impurities from the stock, helping it clear.
Egg whites
Coagulate with the beef as it heats, trapping particles so the stock becomes clear.
White stock
Forms the flavourful liquid base that becomes the jelly.

The step that matters

Simmering the clarification mixture. Once the egg white and beef mixture is stirred in, it must be heated gently and left undisturbed so the coagulated proteins can trap particles and rise. Vigorous boiling breaks the raft apart and leaves the jelly cloudy.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, beef, egg, onion, thyme, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, beef, egg, onion, thyme, celery. 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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