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Aspic Jelly for the Foregoing Recipe

Aspic jelly made from gelatin, chicken broth, and optional vinegar and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly for the Foregoing Recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 2 to 3 hours.

Clarify the broth

  1. Boil the chicken broth and clarify it with egg white, then strain through flannel.

Make and set the aspic

  1. Stir the strained broth into the pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Cook for 1 minute, then stir in the gelatin until dissolved.

  3. Add tarragon vinegar if desired, then set aside in a broad bowl to cool.

  4. Optionally, add Claret or sherry for flavor.

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. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Chicken + tarragontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together619 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together891 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Tarragon + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together158 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the clear broth into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Chicken broth
Forms the savoury liquid base that becomes the aspic.
Egg white (in the method)
Clarifies the broth by collecting cloudy particles so it stays clear.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a sharp, acidic note that brightens the savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Clarify the broth. Egg white is heated with the broth so its proteins coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Straining through flannel then removes them, giving a clear, glossy aspic rather than a murky one.

Swap the tarragon

The recipe marks tarragon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, vinegar, sherry):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, vinegar, sherry. 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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