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Meat Jelly for Aspic

A gelatinous dish made by simmering calf feet and beef, then adding eggs and flavorings to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Meat Jelly for Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Split the calves' feet.

  2. Remove the upper part of the bone.

  3. Place the feet in a pot with the beef and water.

  4. Skim well.

  5. Add onions, carrots, celery, shallot, bay leaves, and pepper.

  6. Simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours.

  7. Strain through a sieve.

  8. Boil the strained liquid again until reduced to 2 quarts.

  9. Let it cool and stiffen.

  10. Remove all the fat.

Clarify and finish

  1. Add vinegar, white wine, and tarragon leaves.

  2. Beat the eggs with a little water and crushed eggshells.

  3. Mix the egg mixture with the jelly.

  4. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Let it sit for 30 minutes until the eggs set.

  7. Drain through a cloth until clear.

  8. Store the aspic in an earthenware or china vessel.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  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

Calves' feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, which lets the liquid set into a jelly when cooled.
Beef
Adds savory depth and body to the stock during the long simmer.
Eggs
Coagulate as they heat, trapping impurities so the cloudy stock clears when strained.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the finished jelly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the jelly.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg mixture into the boiling jelly. Whisking constantly while bringing the mixture to a boil keeps the egg proteins from clumping or scrambling. The coagulating eggs then gather impurities that are removed when the aspic is drained through a cloth, leaving it clear.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, vinegar, white wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, vinegar, white wine. 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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